Chicago Education Advocacy Cooperative Helps Students
Chicago Education Advocacy Cooperative Helps Students
By Tia Carol Jones
A local organization helps students gain access to employment opportunities through upskilling. The Chicago Education Advocacy Cooperative (ChiEAC) was founded by Dr. Benjamin Drury in 2020. Drury was working at an institution where students voiced their concerns about issues they were having, Drury attempted to direct the students to the appropriate institutional resources, only to find out that they did not exist within the institution’s infrastructure.
Shocked by the lack of institutional resources, Drury began raising awareness to members of the administration and board. While the concerns were not dismissed, they were not handled to the satisfaction of the students or Drury. He knew there had to be a different way, so he decided to develop an organization where individuals could bring their skills and education and gain experience using their skillsets to find employment. Since the Chicago Education Advocacy Cooperative was founded in 2020, Drury estimates that it has served more than 1,000 people.
“We work with people to connect them with practical pathways to upward social mobility through the education they have,” Drury said.
According to the Chicago Education Advocacy Cooperative’s website, its two core programs are Elevate and Impact. With Elevate, it creates custom professional opportunities for rising scholars. With Impact, it serves as first-responder advocates to students and families in need. Some of the ways the organization helps people is by finding out what they need to gain employment and creating opportunities to showcase their skills and experience. One example of this is creating a Medium page for individuals, so they could showcase their writing skills. The goal is that those participants would be able to use that experience as a resume builder.
Drury said the response from the people who have worked with the Chicago Education Advocacy Cooperative have been positive. He said most of the people the organization has worked with have come to them through word of mouth from others who they have worked with. The organization has expanded to help students from kindergarten through twelfth grade, as well as adult education, seeing a need for resources among those groups.
The Chicago Education Advocacy Cooperative created the ChiEAC Data Science Alliance after seeing a need for talented international students to have a platform where they could showcase and develop their skills. With the ChiEAC Data Science Alliance, participants can use their technical and professional skills to do hands-on projects. There are currently 40 people in the program and interested parties can contact them through the organization’s website to inquire about hiring them to do projects.
The community can support the work Chicago Education Advocacy Cooperative is doing by donating to its ChiEAC Community Impact Fund. The organization is also looking for people to volunteer as mentors or during events. For more information about the Chicago Education Advocacy Cooperative, visit www.chieac.org.
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