For more than 65 years, Youth Outreach Services (YOS) has been dedicated to helping young people throughout Chicago and surrounding communities overcome challenges and build brighter futures. Founded in 1959, YOS serves more than 3,000 youth and their families each year through a comprehensive continuum of prevention, counseling, juvenile justice, and child welfare services. At YOS, we believe every young person has the potential to lead a healthy, productive, and fulfilling life. We provide compassionate, community-based services that help youth navigate challenges at home, at school, and in their communities while empowering them to discover their strengths, build resilience, and achieve lasting success.
Many of the youth we serve face significant barriers, including poverty, homelessness, mental health challenges, substance use, family conflict, trauma, and involvement with the juvenile justice or child welfare systems. Our dedicated team works alongside youth and their families to provide individualized support, practical resources, and evidence-based services that promote healing, stability, and long-term well-being.
YOS meets young people where they are—at school, at home, in the community, or at one of our program locations—ensuring services are accessible and responsive to their unique needs.
Our comprehensive programs are organized into four core service areas:
- Prevention: Helping youth build healthy relationships, make positive choices, and develop essential life skills before challenges escalate.
- Counseling: Providing trauma-informed mental health, substance use, and family counseling services that support healing and resilience.
- Juvenile Justice: Offering community-based alternatives to detention, restorative justice programming, and reentry services to help youth succeed and reduce recidivism.
- Child Welfare: Supporting youth experiencing homelessness, family instability, and other crises with safe housing, case management, and wraparound services.
Through every program, YOS remains committed to inspiring positive development in the lives of youth, strengthening families, and creating safer, healthier communities where every young person has the opportunity to thrive.
In the Chicagoland area, there is a great need for services to help young people overcome challenges and navigate difficult situations. YOS provides resources for over 3,000 clients and their families each year.
- Mental Health – In a survey of Chicago-area youth, 32% reported feeling sad or hopeless, while 15% contemplated suicide.
- Substance Abuse – Each $1 invested in treatment equals $4 to $7 in crime and criminal justice cost savings.
- Violence – 50% of victims of homicide in Chicago are between the ages of 10 and 25.
- Family Conflict – Struggles at home are the leading causes of homelessness, juvenile delinquency, and poor academics.
- Juvenile Justice – Although children of color in Illinois, ages 10 to 17, are only 16% of the overall age group, they represent:
- 34% arrested
- 38% adjudicated
- 68% in residential placement
- Homelessness – 15,000+ youth without parents/guardians in Chicago who are homeless annually.