Urban Life Skills

The Urban Life Skills Program (ULS) is an intensive, community-based mentoring program for youth ages 10 to 19 in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago. There are two focus areas of the program: ULS Juvenile Justice for gang-involved youth on probation and ULS Jr. Leaders for youth in 5th to 8th grade. These dual focus areas enable us to simultaneously address community needs at the level of intervention and prevention.

The core of our program is mentoring in an individual, group, and team context. Within our mentoring, we embed comprehensive curriculum that addresses substance abuse, life skills (like financial literacy or cooking,) violence prevention, gang intervention, health education, and spiritual development. We also provide court advocacy, educational advocacy, family support services, sports outreach, youth employment, and service learning opportunities.

This holistic program model enables us to fulfill our mission: to provide Christ-centered mentoring and advocacy to guide youth toward a new life and a new direction. We envision Little Village’s youth and families transformed by the hope of Christ, becoming men and women of character to create a flourishing, unified neighborhood.