Harborquest

Our mission: to provide opportunity for a better life through appropriate employment for those disenfranchised from the mainstream economy.

In October of 1970, what is now Harborquest was incorporated as Just Jobs, Inc., an Illinois not-for-profit corporation. A scale of justice was the logo and the goal was justice in the temporary help industry. The Chicago Campaign for Human Development and the Chicago Mayor’s Office of Manpower, now the Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development, provided seed money.

The organization was the nation's first not-for-profit to launch and effectively operate a temporary help staffing service as a platform for upgrading employment opportunities for residents of low-income inner-city neighborhoods. By 1986, it had a top share of the light industrial contracting market and employed more than 800 people per day. To date, Suburban Job-Link has directly employed more than 35,000 Chicago residents.

Suburban Job-Link is widely recognized for its development and testing of appropriate commuter transportation solutions for lower-income workers. Early successes of its fixed-route express bus models attracted nation attention, and played a role in the development of more than $100 million in federal funding under the Access to Jobs and Reverse Commute provision in the Transportation Equity Act of 1998.