True Value Boys & Girls Club of Chicago

With nearly 60 years of exemplary service to the community, the General Robert E. Wood Boys & Girls Club was renamed the True Value Boys & Girls Club in the fall of 2015. This was done in recognition of True Value's ongoing support and engagement of Boys & Girls Clubs in Chicago and around the country.

True Value Club opened its doors in 1956 and was originally named the General Wood Club after legendary General Robert Elkington Wood, who was a US Army Brigadier General and was best known for leading the Sears, Roebuck and Company from 1928 to 1954. He also founded the Allstate Insurance Company in 1931 as a subsidiary of Sears. Wood served as President of the Board of Directors of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Chicago from 1949 to 1959.

Today, the True Value Club serves the South Lawndale community, also known as Little Village, which primarily services a Latino community. Little Village is the retail, residential and cultural capital of the Mexican community in the Midwest. Over the past 30 years, Little Village has become a major port of entry for Mexican immigrants, and the community has been strengthened by the economic power, traditions, determination and hope that they bring. While solid housing stock and thriving commercial districts have been key to the community's prosperity, the neighborhood is challenged to invest in its human resources—in particular the youth in the community. Half of the residents are under the age of 25, creating a demand for better support for education, recreation programs and other social services.

The True Value Club responds to that need by offering a wide array of programs in our five core program areas. In addition to our traditional programs, the True Value Club is also home to Community Links High School, a unique Chicago Public School with a 100% graduation rate and a better than 85% success rate of college placement for its graduates which is supported by our College Bound program.