Armed with a dream during the winter of 2014, Brittiney Jones, now Executive Director of CYOI, decided it was time to go back to her roots and help those going through similar struggles as she experienced as a youth being a ward of the state. A ward of a state is a youth placed under the legal protection of the state. While living in Chicago, Brittiney realized there was not only limited funding for ward of the state youth, but also there is a growing number of youth that are identified to be wards of the state or homeless. In addition, Brittiney realized that minimal resources were available for ward of state youth once they age of out of the system. Therefore, Brittiney seeked to establish an organization that would provide students an opportunity to grow and develop the transferable skills necessary to succeed after aging out of the system.

 

Brittiney then shared this observation with Alayna Washington who eventually became the Co-Founders of the what is now known as Chicago Youth Opportunities Initiative. Chicago Youth Opportunities Initiative quickly became a syndicate of missionaries focused on the holistic development of foster care youth, helping them achieve their personal definition of success. The team quickly expanded due to the energy like-minded individuals quickly gravitated towards.

 

Very soon after, CYOI officially became a 501(c)3 non-profit organization anxious to impact the lives of one of Chicago’s most underrepresented and under-supported communities that needs and deserve the same development opportunities as their counterparts.

 

As the Founders of CYOI, we would like to thank you for taking the time to read our story and we encourage you to join us on the journey to making Chicago a better place!