Each February, Covenant House Illinois celebrates Black History Month by highlighting the achievements, culture, and people who have made a lasting impact on American society.
This month, Covenant Works (CHIL’s Education and Employment Department) specialists hosted our inaugural career Panel discussion, highlighting African American industry leaders from our community.
Chamira Sankey, CHIL’s Education and Employment Manager, explains “As Covenant Works’ first career panel concludes, I feel nothing but joy and even more passion behind why I do the work that I do. Planning events/programs is not an easy task (from connecting with people to see who's interested in attending, figuring out spacing and an outline, to everyone showing up open and ready to share), so I'm super happy that it turned out better than we planned. Our workforce program was able to bring a diverse group of individuals from around the city of Chicago, in one space to talk about their experiences, and their careers, and share inspiration and motivational messages to our youth. As a result, the response that we received from our youth, other panelists, and staff here at CHIL, proved that events like these are well-needed and appreciated. This is the first of many and I'm so excited for the career panel to be an ongoing theme in our workforce program.
The Career Panel is just one example of the education and employment opportunities CHIL’s Education and Employment services department provides for youth as we continue to expand the wrap-around services and programming available to young people experiencing homelessness.