History

A Look Back…
Since 1996, we have been fulfilling our mission to “prepare young men in North Lawndale for mature, responsible leadership, academic excellence, and outstanding service to others.” YMEN started in the home of Michael and Karen Trout, when a group of local junior high boys requested after-school tutoring in the subject of math. Before long, the Trouts were providing tutoring in all subjects, sports and recreational activities, mentoring, family support, and a “home cooked” meal to 12 young men three days a week. They purchased a mini school bus for $800 and began taking kids to visit local colleges and cultural events. YMEN had begun!

A Look Forward…
Today, many of our original students are now attending the very schools they visited a decade ago: Quincey Arrington (Wheaton College), Norman Baldwin (Rutgers University), Willie Chatman (Olivet Nazarene University), Percy Ollie (University of Illinois), Xavier Ramey (DePaul University), Eric Woods (Illinois Institute of Technology), and Antonio Gross (Northeastern Illinois University).

We have recently moved into an 8,000 square foot facility that has allowed us to increase the number of youth we serve to over 100 students a week! Although two of our weekly programs are offered to both boys and girls, YMEN remains to be one of the very few all-male, single sex organizations on Chicago’s Westside. YMEN has received the Wallace Douglas Distinguished Service Award, the Human Capacity Award from the Lawndale Business and Local Development Corporation, and a finalist from the Susan Berkowitz Award from the Francis W. Parker School. In addition, YMEN was recognized by Professor Joseph Kahn of the University of Illinois as “one of the outstanding youth leadership development organizations in Chicago.”

We provide an environment in which every student leader can use their gifts and talents to make a positive contribution to the broader community. Through hard work, self-determination, group coorperation, and creativity, students will acquire leadership skills and individual talent that will prepare them for success at the collegiate level and in their professional careers. YMEN desires that each young person can grow in their personal development and utilize their God-given strenghts in a leadership capacity to serve others. We are pleased to have student leaders serve both on our Board of Directors and as program staff.