Recent Sun-Times stories highlight the invaluable lessons summer jobs provide teens but also how a changing labor market and economic uncertainty pose a risk to these opportunities for so many young people in our city.
While we must acknowledge these factors and their impact, it’s important to look beyond the ebbs and flows of the market and into the neighborhoods where our young people live and the root causes of disconnection to truly tackle sustained teen employment.
Many Chicago youth are navigating uncertain and uneven pathways to school, work and opportunity. Fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, paired with growing housing instability and a teen mental health crisis, plus persistent community violence, has deepened these divides.
Youth employment has emerged as a powerful tool to reengage young people, reduce violence and promote economic mobility. Chicago has the opportunity to design a model that’s responsive to this moment and sets a standard for how cities invest in their young people.
In doing so, it’s imperative to consider what happens when short-term jobs and programs end, the school year begins and young people are searching for purpose, income and support.
Programs focused on employment, mentorship and career pathways can create safer neighborhoods, build confidence and foster a stronger future workforce. But they must be rooted in the realities of local communities and meet young people where they are.
At Goodwill Greater Milwaukee & Chicago, we’ve adapted our service delivery model to meet different needs of youth across the city. In Englewood, transportation deserts and food insecurity present very different barriers to work than those in Uptown. So we show up in trusted spaces, like schools, and offer accessible programs close to home in communities like Englewood, North Riverside and Berwyn. We pair workforce preparation with life and soft skills, connection to resources and paid work experiences.
Exposure to professional pathways, especially through public-private programming means hands-on learning, real world exposure and access to industries many young people never thought possible.
Our city has the talent, creativity and strength to build a resilient workforce that begins with its youth. But it requires bold, community-based strategies and cross-sector partnerships.
Chicago’s civic, business, philanthropic and community leaders: Let’s expand our united efforts because today’s young people are counting on us for a brighter tomorrow.
Clayton Pryor, chief mission officer, Goodwill Greater Milwaukee & Chicago
Israel’s actions stray far from Jewish principles
I was born in 1978 in Manhattan to conservative Jewish parents. For most of my childhood, I was raised in the Jewish faith, spending weekends at temple and Hebrew school. I have warm memories of celebrating the high holy days, and as is customary, I had my bar mitzvah at 13.
Although I have not practiced Judaism in the traditional sense for decades, I still strive to weave the central tenets of Judaism into my daily life as a compassionate human being. The Judaism I learned as a child emphasized core spiritual principles: integrity, discipline, service, honesty, humility, hope and love for all.
Israel emerged from the atrocities inflicted upon Jews by the Nazis. At the end of World War II, when the full scale of the Holocaust became undeniable, the world recognized the necessity of a safe haven for Jews — thus, the modern state of Israel was established.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas launched an attack on Israel, killing over 1,000 Israelis and foreign nationals and taking 251 hostages. In what initially appeared to be a justified act of self-defense, Israel launched a retaliatory bombing campaign in Gaza, which to date, has resulted in more than 60,000 Palestinian deaths and over 150,000 injuries, many of them to women and children.
Beyond these casualties, the widespread destruction of hospitals, agricultural land and infrastructure rendered large parts of Gaza uninhabitable.
As social media and news outlets continue to share harrowing stories and images of the suffering in Gaza, I find myself struggling to make sense of what feels both senseless and unjustifiable.
The more I reflect, the more I cannot ignore the glaring contradictions. How can Israel — a nation born directly from the ashes of the Holocaust — now engage in and condone actions that mirror, in essence if not in scale, the persecution it was created to prevent? How can Israel — a spiritual center for Judaism, a religion grounded in compassion, kindness and love for humanity — justify actions that stand in direct opposition to those principles? Clearly, the Judaism I am witnessing by some Jews in Israel and around the world today is not the same Judaism I was raised with.
It is precisely because of my enduring faith in Judaism’s moral teachings that I am baffled by the lack of a stronger outcry from Jewish spiritual leaders to end the suffering in Gaza. History offers powerful examples of leaders who endured grave injustices without resorting to vengeance. Instead, they championed love, generosity, forgiveness and understanding. As the crisis in Gaza persists, I call upon people across the globe, including Israelis, to take a stand and act decisively to end the atrocities. We can — and must —do better as human beings.
Dr. Jason Chertoff, Columbus, Ohio
Notre Dame gets it right
With the 2025-2026 football season starting and conference affiliations driving everything from revenue to recruiting, one program stands firm in its independence: Notre Dame. While the majority of college football powers navigate constraints of conference scheduling, media contracts and shared revenue structures, the Fighting Irish continue to embrace an independent model, thereby futureproofing their football program.
In this calculated move of not belonging to a conference, Notre Dame provides itself a competitive advantage rooted in tradition. Since its inception in 1887, the program has remained independent — a vision reinforced through a 2023 media rights extension (through 2029) with NBC. In contrast to conference programs, the Irish maintain exclusive control over their broadcast footprint, calling their own shots from both financial and strategic standpoints.
In designing its own football schedule, Notre Dame prioritizes key rivalries, national coverage and strong competition over potential low-value, conference-based games. In January, the Notre Dame versus Indiana game attracted an estimated 13.39 million viewers, according to Sports Media Watch. Blending tradition with broad exposure gives Notre Dame a level of flexibility most schools don’t have. Thus, the Irish can preserve its historic rivalries — University of Southern California and Navy Midshipmen — while adding marquee national games that appeal to fans and recruits. A strong example of this is their scheduling agreement with Clemson University. With annual games between the two universities extending through 2038, Notre Dame’s strategic approach is on full display. The team not only maximizes elite competition but also drives brand value through building strong rivalries with other high-profile programs.
This autonomy is increasingly valuable as more schools lose control to conferences and third-party entities. The challenges in collegiate football will only intensify. Schools will face mounting pressure around postseason formats and expanding student-athlete rights. At the same time, the landscape is shifting, driven by name, image and likeness — or NIL, revenue sharing and growing discussions around athlete employment. Programs with greater control over their operations, like Notre Dame, will be best positioned to adapt.
The Irish remain proof that independence, when done right, is extremely powerful. It has allowed the university to maintain a legacy by managing its future on its own terms. As the college athletics landscape continues to evolve, this model could eventually serve as a blueprint for other universities to replicate. College football is changing rapidly, but in South Bend, the future is green.
Justin J. Giangrande, CEO and founder, NETWORK
The real problem is how U.S. hospitals are paid
The Sun-Times recently ran an excellent story on the plight of Roseland Hospital — one of Chicago’s 20 safety net hospitals, which treat mostly poor and low-income patients. Dr. Khurram Khan, Roseland’s chief administrator, is anticipating big financial pain from Donald Trump’s big ugly tax cut bill.
But Roseland’s financial problems didn’t start with Trump. Safety net hospitals have been experiencing financial stress and closures for some time. In fact, 153 rural hospitals have closed since 2010, and not because of bad management or lack of patients. The culprit is the U.S. for-profit multipayer system for financing health care. It’s the most expensive in the world, but it produces mediocre health outcomes.
Our system has created a hierarchy of hospitals based on the type of insurance patients have. Hospitals receive the highest reimbursement for patients with private insurance, a middle amount from Medicare and the lowest amount from Medicaid, for the same services. There can be as much as a 100% difference between the highest and lowest payment for the same service!
A majority of patients at safety net hospitals, by definition, are on Medicaid, the lowest payer, or they are uninsured. Hospitals with a higher percentage of patients with Medicare or private insurance get substantially more money for the same services.
Several federal and state programs subsidize safety net hospitals, but these piecemeal efforts have proven to be inadequate. In fact, of the country’s 1,300 critical access hospitals, all of which get supplemental funding, 20% are at immediate risk of closing, another 20% are at risk in the next five to seven years, and 60% had an operating loss in their last fiscal year.
Under Medicare for All, there is one payer, and all services are reimbursed equally. All patients are insured. When Roseland treats a patient, let’s say for COVID-19, it would receive the same reimbursement that the University of Chicago would get if it treated the same patient. Equal reimbursement might enable Roseland to get that new 15-bed intensive care unit that Dr. Khan is hoping for.
William Bianchi, North Center
MAGA averse
I am a 73-year-old Black woman. Born and raised on the West Side, I want to set the record straight: Danielle Carter-Walters and her eight supporters Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg recently wrote about don’t speak for me or any of the countless other Black women that I am related to or am acquainted with in her support for Donald Trump.
Calvine Thompson, Bellwood
Trump’s America — not restaurant logos — are troubling
People wake up! Many Americans created an issue because Cracker Barrel announced a logo change. Who cares?! Changing a logo doesn’t mean the restaurant chain would have changed its menu. There are far more many changes in this country that go unnoticed. Put your energy into rising prices of food, gas, medical bills, etc. We have a convicted felon running wild saying “Make America Great Again.” When did we stop being great? There’s the issue we should be concerned with.
Christopher Berbeka, Palatine
Red flags
Once again our tyrannical “dictator in chief” has, with the stroke of a pen, attempted to criminalize the act of burning the American flag — an act firmly established by the Supreme Court as free speech.
Of course President Hitler, aka Donald Trump, hides behind the loophole of saying burning the flag “may incite violence and riot.” But that fig leaf hardly conceals his true fascistic intent on total domination and control of every facet of American life.
Only a Hitlerian dictator would forget that desecrating Pride flags is a crime punishable by jail time, and painting over rainbow crosswalks is the true assault on the oppressed peoples of America — not the inconsequential and protected act of burning an American flag.
Jim FitzGerald, Edgewater
School shootings aren’t cause for alarm for Trump administration
In light of the recent mass shooting at a Catholic school in Minneapolis, I find myself wondering if Donald Trump will use this as an excuse to send the National Guard there.
Steven Herr, West Ridge