Chicago News Cooperative
July 2, 2010
A profile of Put Illinois to Work, the statewide jobs program managed by Heartland Human Care Services.
From Chicago News Cooperative:
The private Daybridge School, which opens in Olympia Fields next month, may prove to be a testament to educational vision. For now, it’s an homage to serendipity, given the help afforded by President Obama’s economic stimulus package.
Beyond signs promoting the thousands of road projects nationwide that have come to symbolize the stimulus package in action, many smaller programs are financed without fanfare, giving careers — and livelihoods — a shot at making it through an unforgiving recession.
William Spencer, a businessman, will open Daybridge School, his private pre-kindergarten-through-third-grade institution in a 30,000-square-foot facility that used to be a racquetball club in an office park. Another group originally planned to turn the space into a school but went out of business, allowing Mr. Spencer to pick up the property at a foreclosure sale.
He said that his encounter with “Put Illinois to Work,” a mostly temporary jobs program now financing 17,000 jobs, was a coincidence. “I ran into another employer with a kid coming here,” he said, “heard about the program and looked at the state Web site.”
Mr. Spencer met the stimulus program’s criteria, so the state will pick up the $10-an-hour cost for 15 positions for the previously unemployed, including teaching assistants, receptionists and clerks. That money runs out Oct. 1.
“I could not possibly have hired those 15 without this help,” said Mr. Spencer, who plans to charge tuition of $18,000 a year. He said more students have already enrolled than he can handle. When the federal subsidy runs out, he hopes that the ability to attract and accommodate more students — he’s aiming at the children of black professionals — will allow him to keep employing them.
Then there are projects like as the Rosa Parks Apartments in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood. The development comprises 94 affordable housing units in eight buildings, and results from $10 million given to the nonprofit Bickerdike Redevelopment Corporation. The private investor market in such housing has collapsed, said Joy Arguete, the company’s executive director.
Ms. Arguete created 109 jobs, including 55 in construction, with permanent spots remaining in the $35,000-to-$50,000 range. Those include a “green resident organizer,” Liz Andujar, who ensures that tenants understand the project’s green elements and, heeding the Obama administration push for sustainable communities, how best to use public transit and recycling.
