The Chicago Housing Authority today accepted a $2.3 million Jobs Plus Initiative grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), funding a five-year effort to connect working-age residents at Wentworth Gardens with employment services. CHA is one of only 10 agencies nationwide to receive the grant.
Jobs Plus is a place-based program built on three core components: employment-related services, a financial rent incentive, and community support. Through strong, sustained partnerships with local organizations, CHA will offer residents employment training, skill building, financial literacy training, and direct hire job placements. Program goals include increasing the number of residents who find employment, raising quarterly employment rates, and boosting resident income, with outcomes designed to outlast the five-year grant term.
This is CHA’s third Jobs Plus award, following grants at Altgeld Gardens (2015-2019) and Dearborn Homes (2021-2025). Wentworth Gardens program include the Wentworth Gardens Local Advisory Council, Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership, City Colleges of Chicago, Chicago Park District, and UI Health Miles Square are among those partners offering resources for Jobs Plus Participants at Wentworth Gardens this grant period.
The program’s impact is reflected in the staff it has helped build, as well as the residents it serves. Ethiah Williams first came to Jobs Plus as a participant and now leads as a Program Manager:
“Jobs Plus saw potential in me before I fully saw it in myself,” Williams said. “It gave me confidence, skills, leadership, and purpose. I am standing here today because someone invested in me, and now I have the privilege of investing in others.”
