Illinois’ comeback story starts here.
“If these scholarships end, it may result in me having to quit my job and homeschool my son. Having the scholarship allows them to be in a safe, respectful and trauma-free environment."
“I want lawmakers to know that some people out here don’t have enough money to better themselves, so they depend on people like Empower Illinois."
“If it weren’t for the scholarship, he probably would have been home taught. Public school was just not an option for him.”
“If Invest in Kids sunsets, we would probably move out of state. The scholarship is the only thing that has kept us here for the last six years.”
“One of my children was coming home from school frustrated, emotional and explosive. I asked the kindergarten teacher if she was seeing any issues at school. She said, ‘No. Everything is fine.’”
“I came to the realization while I was incarcerated that I had to make some serious, life-changing decisions. I had obviously made a bad career choice. I made a conscious effort and decision to turn my life around.”
“The biggest thing is that people need to be empowered, not the government. We’ve seen such a transfer of wealth from individual people to the government. Such a transfer of authority.”
Larry Roberts is a Chicago barber who helps former inmates reclaim their lives and dignity through jobs training. We first spoke to him in 2021. His school ran a barber shop inside the Chatham neighborhood Walmart until this spring, when Walmart abruptly closed that location and three others. Larry is looking for a new location...
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