Impact

What shows up on the block.

Every number here is what happened in 2025 in Woodlawn and the surrounding South Side — served, placed, trained, fed, funded.

HELPING OTHERS OBTAIN DESTINY
2025 at a glance

The numbers.

15,000+
community members served
2,000,000+ lbs
food distributed
$19/hr
average starting wage for placements
84%
LEO Center capital campaign funded
140+
violence incidents mediated
380
youth in education programs
520
mental health sessions delivered
62
small businesses coached
Program outcomes

Where the work landed.

Violence Prevention

31% fewer gun homicides in 60637

Our outreach team mediated 140+ incidents and responded to 22 hospital bedside interventions. The 60637 ZIP saw a 31% reduction in gun homicides 2024→2025.

Workforce Development

Job placements · 72% retained at 6 months

Construction trades, tech, and logistics. $19/hr average starting wage. 72% still employed with the same employer six months out.

Youth Programming

380 youth · 94% attendance rate

Entrepreneurship training, tutoring, and mentorship. 94% weekly attendance. 42 youth placed in summer internships.

Health & Wellness

520 sessions · 0 cost to participants

Individual therapy, group work, and crisis response — entirely free to participants, funded by foundations + individual donors.

LEO Center progress

The building goes up with the dollars.

$38M raised · 84% of $45M

Groundbreaking was 2022. Target completion is 2027. Every dollar of the capital campaign goes directly to the build — no operating overhead, fully audited.

Learn about LEO Center
"I came in looking for a construction job. I left with a trade, a clean slate, and a plan. That's not a statistic — that's a life."
— Workforce program graduate, 2025 cohort

Help us make 2026 bigger.