Jobs Project

Jobs Organizer Jim Picchetti

CCH pursues jobs initiatives that improve access to job training and living wage employment for low-wage workers.

The Jobs Project is a partner with Raise Illinois, a campaign to raise the state’s minimum wage from the $8.25-an-hour rate that was set in July 2010. Senate Bill 1565 would raise the Illinois minimum wage to $10.65 by 2014 — it was approved by the Illinois Senate Executive Committee in May 2012, but did not progress before the General Assembly adjourned.

In 2010, the Jobs Project proposed and helped design Put Illinois to Work, a subsidized program that employed more than 27,300 people over nine months. Funded with federal stimulus and state grants, Put Illinois to Work was developed by CCH in partnership with several state and non-profit agencies, including the Illinois Department of Human Services.

CCH proposed Put Illinois to Work based on a national model it had advocated in partnership with the Center for Community Change in Washington, D.C. Put Illinois to Work employed low-income parents and youth in $10-an-hour jobs for 30 to 40 hours per week.

For more information, contact organizer Jim Picchetti at (312) 641-4140 or at jim1325@chicagohomeless.org.

Photo by Betsy Neely, Avalanche in B Photography