One Summer Chicago Youth Continue Working to Improve Neighborhoods

The City of Chicago is proud to announce that this year’s One Summer Chicago youth participants are on pace to complete more community beautification projects than ever before — improving their communities across the city, one lot at a time.

So far this summer, the One Summer Chicago youth employed by the Mayor’s Infrastructure Team have accomplished the following:

· Bags of debris filled and collected — 7,980

· Parkways cleaned — 5,647

· Total number of trees mulched — 3,103

· Lots cleaned — 609

· Mains cleaned — 629

· Cubic yard of mulch used — 455

· Viaducts cleaned/painted — 274

The Mayor’s Infrastructure Team, a joint initiative by the Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS), the Department of Streets and Sanitation (DSS), and the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT), is designed to teach youth leadership and other skillsets by involving them in work to beautify Chicago neighborhoods through maintenance, cleanup, gardening and public art installations.

This year’s program, with a record 30,400 youth participants, is the city’s largest youth jobs program to date, having grown by more than 70 percent since its 2011 launch to accommodate a strong demand by youth across the city.