Our Philosophy
"Youth can Do Any Thing if Given the Appropriate Amount of Support and Training".

At the heart of CHALK's mission is "transformative youth employment". CHALK places youth on the front lines as service providers to their peers and provides them with over 100 hours of paid job and life skills training. Our jobs transform the youth we employ because we entrust them with high levels of responsibility and provide a foundation of professional and emotional support.

CHALK infuses Youth Development Principles with Youth Employment.

CHALK’s Core Values We utilize our life experiences to positively affect the community. We are dedicated; we understand that working for the community is a lifestyle, not a job. We ensure youth voice, youth influence and youth leadership is integrated in all of the work we do. CHALK's Core Values were created in 2007 by youth staff.

CHALK OUTREACH WITH MIKE EPPS

CHALK Youth Staff

The average length of time a young person remains employed at CHALK is 18 months. While youth are hired while considered extremely high risk, they leave CHALK transformed into prepared, skilled individuals. CHALK employees were accepted to the following schools: Dartmouth, UC Davis, San Francisco State University, NYU, Dominican University, Southern University, Howard, UCLA, Rochester School for Technology, Shaw University, St. Augustine's, UC Santa Cruz and Bennett College.

Twenty five percent (25%) of our youth are also Americorps members and are able to apply their work hours with us as service hours for Americorps and earn about $1250 in an education award to use toward academics.

To learn more about the youths CHALK employs, read their biographies here.

Youth Employment
Combined with Academic Support

Since CHALK's inception in 1996, CHALK has hired over 400 part-time youth, provided over 50,000 hours of training and paid out over a million in youth wages.

CHALK is a true for youth by youth organization. CHALK employs 50 part time youth throughout the year and 5 full time adult staff. When employing youth, CHALK gives priority to youth who demonstrate high risk characteristics.

CHALK Employs Youth with Significant Needs

95% are low income 95% are youth of color 90% are from drug infested and violent neighborhoods 80% are at risk of academic failure 30% are on probation 20% are LGBTQQI youth 10% are teen parents