The deaths of a friend from gun violence and of people she knew from COVID-19 took a toll on Amy Roman. She was unsure of her career goals and future, and her time was taken up caring for younger siblings. Feeling anxious, “I became a hermit,” she says. “But once I started my mentorship with The Alliance 98, which transitioned into a paid job, I was able to identify who I am and what my interests are.”
The mission of The Alliance 98, or TA98, is “to tackle the high unemployment rates of young people between 16 and 24 by giving them skills, experiences and networks to obtain meaningful careers and long-term fulfillment,” says David Rojas, Jr., who founded the organization in 2018. The Alliance focuses on communities in the 60623 ZIP code, which includes Little Village and North and South Lawndale. The focus is on personal and professional development, fostering growth through tailored mentorship and guidance. “This is not charity,” Rojas says. “This is an economic investment in the city of Chicago and our country.”
People before me did a lot to create safe spaces. I feel good to be part of that change and I want to continue creating it.
Amy Roman
TA98 serves 100 to 150 young people directly every year and more than 5,000 people indirectly. Its flagship program, Suited for a Cause, was inspired by Rojas’s experience getting his first dress suit, a donation, when he was 16. When he graduated from college, he asked the same company to sponsor 70 men’s suits. And what started as a one-day project evolved into an ongoing program distributing suits to organizations serving young men leaving incarceration and others needing business clothes for job interviews. In recent years, they have given suits to young women and non-binary individuals.
Entrepreneurship creates social and economic mobility, says Rojas, who also created a business incubator called Grounded Studio, where youth with innovative ideas get support to build a business from scratch. Other participants can join the in-house marketing team. “They get to tell stories. They get to run our digital marketing platforms, our newsletter, our social media, our podcast. It’s all youth-led,” Rojas says. “We also hire 16 community youth to organize events for their peers.”
Amy, 22, started as a volunteer and was their first youth hire. She started in Suited for a Cause as an unpaid participant and later was hired as community program manager for the Safe Spaces program. In her current role, she does “a little bit of everything,” from supervising and overseeing schedules, to building relationships with business owners and working with the accounting team to make sure participants are paid and reports are filed with the city.
“I enjoy contributing to creating safe spaces,” Amy says. “It was difficult growing up in the city with gun violence. I couldn’t go to the park as much as I wanted; now I can be in the park without feeling anxious. People before me did a lot to create safe spaces. I feel good to be part of that change and I want to continue creating it.”
Through the Robert R. McCormick Communities Fund, dedicated people across Chicagoland help make sure that every child and family has opportunities to achieve their goals. With your support, we can create new possibilities and help make countless dreams come true. Funding from the Robert R. McCormick Foundation Communities Fund assists organizations on the South and West Sides of Chicago to make a meaningful impact in the lives of children, young adults, and families each and every day.
