The Skills to Graduate
The Confidence to Succeed
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Jobs for Illinois Graduates (JILG) is a state affiliate member of the national organization, Jobs for America's Graduates. Founded in 1996, JILG is a State of Illinois not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) corporation providing Illinois public high school students - through its nationally recognized and highly successful program curriculum - with the skills and motivation to stay in school, to graduate, and to move into successful careers and higher education. The program curriculum provides these students with the tools necessary to complete their high school education and provide them with the support, confidence and skills to improve their personal development and employability skills that will serve them in forging a successful future.
In its 10 years of operation JILG has served over 20,000 Illinois high school students throughout 300 communities within the state. From it's beginning, JILG has focused its program on those disadvantaged students who demonstrate specific barriers to completing their high school education. Those barriers include educational/academic problems, cultural problems, socio-economic problems, and personal development problems. (See list of barriers).
By 2002, due to the vast support of the program by school administrators throughout the state, JILG had evolved into a statewide organization directly serving more than 5,000 students annually in more than 80 schools throughout Illinois.
The highly successful and cost-effective program has been recognized by Illinois high school administrators as the most effective program in dealing with student drop out rates and exceeding the national standards for programs working with high school youths.
The success of JILG's program is evidenced not only by its graduation rate but also by the success of its students after graduation. Across the nation, only 71% of high school students graduate. (See state graduation rates). The JILG program consistently graduates over 90% of its students; and 95% of all JILG students are working full-time, are enrolled full-time in post secondary education, or have a full time combination of the two.
See a list of potential barriers
See list of participating schools