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Grant aims to help teens get back on track

Keavon Cooper, 17, a troubled teen who dropped out of high school, represents what many in social work call "Opportunity Youth," a population the city is targeting with significant new grant initiatives announced Thursday, including a half-million dollar grant to launch a Reconnection Hub in Roseland for youth disengaged from school or employment.

About 60,000 Chicago youths ages 16-24 fit that category, according to a University of Illinois at Chicago study - 46.6 percent of young black males and 20 percent of Latino peers in underserved South Side and West Side neighborhoods, compared to 10 percent of young white males.

The $500,000 grant will fund a one-stop shop for Opportunity Youth seeking help getting their lives back on track, and hiring fairs in Roseland, Englewood and Little Village, each targeting 300-plus such youth. Another $670,000 will fund a hub that began as a pilot program last year in Auburn-Gresham.

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