Wanting for a summer months job? Apps for A single Summertime Chicago are open up.

Chicago teens searching for a summertime occupation can now utilize on the web by way of One Summertime Chicago — the city’s youth work plan, which has observed a decrease in participation in latest many years.

Applications opened Feb. 28 and are due June 4. The software will run for six months, from June 26 to Aug. 4, and any Chicago resident ages 14 to 24 is eligible to use. 

Last summer, 20,544 youth participated in the method, which delivers careers, internships, support discovering, and vocation exploration packages, according to a new report produced by the Division of Children and Loved ones Help Services. Just above 16,000 teens worked careers and internships, although some others enrolled in systems aimed at vocation exploration and services mastering. 

Those people quantities have however to recover from a steep fall in participation in 2020 — when summertime systems have been virtual or hybrid. About 20,000 youth bought work by way of A single Summer months Chicago during the to start with summer time of the COVID pandemic, as opposed to much more than 30,000 in 2019. 

Outgoing Mayor Lori Lightfoot experienced hoped last summer season would see a rebound, calling for a “summer months of pleasure” when the application opened. 

Summer months jobs and youth work a lot more broadly are critical concerns in the present-day mayoral runoff election in between Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson and previous Chicago General public Faculties CEO Brandon Johnson. Equally have promised to enhance youth employment applications. 

Summer time teenager work dropped across the region in 2020, but rebounded in 2021, according to a Pew Research Heart investigation of info from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Continue to, the range of teens with summer time employment has been declining in new decades. Prior to 2000, much more than half of American teens labored summer season gigs. Now, it’s all-around a 3rd, the report found. 

In addition to A single Summer months Chicago, Chicago Community Schools provides a broad selection of summer time courses — such as tutorial catch-up required for students who failed particular grades — that acquired a big enhance with federal COVID restoration money. 

For far more details about One particular Summer months Chicago, the town has a list of usually asked questions on the internet. 

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at [email protected].