Our Work

We believe all young people in Chicago deserve out-of-school opportunities to learn, work, and nurture their brilliance to unlock their greatest potential in school and life.

Our Programs

  • Meetups & Convenings

    CLX convenes, connects, and supports more than 200 individuals representing 90 organizations across Chicago in our ongoing Meetups and other…

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  • Brother Mike Awards

    The Brother Mike Awards are awards to honor outstanding out-of-school time mentors with $5,000 no-strings-attached financial support. The award is…

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  • CLX Executive Leadership Program

    CLX + Paragon Executive Leadership Program: We are excited to announce the application to our inaugural Executive Leadership Program, offered…

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Our Impact

CLX is a network weaver that connects, invests in, and advocates for the Chicago out-of-school time (OST) community. Our work impacts individuals, organizations, and systems. Our members represent a diverse group of youth mentors, administrators, teaching artists, youth advocates, coaches, librarians, professionals, funders, and volunteers who have a shared passion for making Chicago rich with out of school learning opportunities, and a shared belief in the greatness of Chicago's young people.

Connect

We bring together a community of over 150 partner organizations serving young people in Chicago. Partner organizations consistently report an increased sense of belonging in a broader OST community as well as opportunities to collaborate with one another after attending Meetups. They also report access to valuable information that helps them advance their work. Over the past five years, survey responses from community meetups have shown an increase in all three of these areas (belonging, collaboration, and access to information).

Invest

We invest in our Chicago OST community through opportunities to convene, specialized and responsive trainings, and funding advocacy for our sector. Since 2020, we have invested over $45,000 directly in leading mentors through the Brother Mike Awards, an annual no-strings-attached recognition of excellence in OST youth mentorship. We believe the Chicago OST community has some of the most talented and impactful mentors in the field of education, and we believe these mentors deserve not only care and recognition but material supports and resources.

Advocate

We work with our community of partner organizations to advocate for funding, support, and resources for the vital work of OST education. Especially in this time of sociopolitical uncertainty, we believe we must come together to fight for our sector and the people who make it great.

  • 15O Partner Organizations
  • 2OOk+ Youth Served by Partner Organizations
  • 91% Of CLX Member organizations report collaboration at our Meetups
  • $45K Awarded directly to Youth Mentors through the Brother Mike Awards since 2020