Concordia Place

Community programsteen leadershipconcordia's year-round teen programs were created to empower youth with the 21st-century skills necessary to be successful in today's world, including entrepreneurship, social-emotional intelligence, and social responsibility. Utilizing a learn-and-earn model, students explore their passions, including urban gardening, culinary arts, crafting, and more. The 13- to 18-year-old participants can choose between a suite of programs, each of which has a different focus area. For example, ruckus entrepreneurs enables teens to learn business skills while creating and selling natural body care products; culinary leaders helps students grow and prepare food while developing conflict resolution skills; and craft & culture lab teaches youth about sustainable art practices and different cultures' art styles. Concordia also offers a program called emerging entrepreneurs in schools, which teaches students with intellectual disabilities from chicago public schools' northside learning center entrepreneurial skills, helping them create products that they later sell as fundraising items for their school.concordia place cultivates diversity through its immersive teen leadership programs. In fiscal year 2024, over 260 teens attended programming. 60% of students were latino/hispanic, 20% were black/african american, 8% were asian, 6% were multi-racial, and 6% were white. To further foster inclusion and economic mobility, teen leadership utilizes an "earn and learn model," in which participants receive stipends to attend. This is especially transformative for participants - 93% of whom are eligible for free or reduced lunches - because many come from households that rely on them to supplement their families' income. Health, food access, and safety in avondaleconcordia place has sustained its partnership with advocate aurora health through the avondale faith and health community collaborative, which aims to enhance health outcomes in the avondale community by addressing the social determinants that influence overall community well-being. The collaborative addresses the community's food needs by providing free grocery markets, offering hot meals at community dinners, and supplying baby formula and other infant necessities to families with young children. The collaborative also refers community members to clinics that offer free physical and mental healthcare for the uninsured and underinsured. Over the last full year, the collaborative served over 13,900 people by leveraging 300 volunteers. The collaborative's accomplishments include serving community dinners to 1,788 residents, providing groceries to over 4,000 family members, and offering over 380 referrals to local mental and physical health providers.