This Chicago Bakery Hires and Mentors At-Risk Youth

CHICAGO -- A Chicago bakery is helping homeless and at-risk youth overcome challenges.

Blue Sky Bakery on the city's North Side offers a 12-week job training program to young people who are homeless or who have unstable housing.

Founder Lisa Thompson hires teens from challenging circumstances so they can develop new skills, raise money to go to school, or to help them transition into full-time employment in the food and hospitality industry.

"So many of the youth that we serve, they don't see what their futures look like, they don't see how they're going to get out of their neighborhood. They really don't know what the future holds for them," Thompson said.

Thompson said a case manager works with youth to identify their personal and career goals.

"I felt it was important to not only tell young people that they need to work and that they need to stay employed, but it was important to create an atmosphere that was supportive for them," Thompson said. "So to essentially create jobs for them that were sensitive to their background, to the trauma they've been exposed to, to having unstable housing, to just not having any experience."

For more information, visit blue-sky-bakery.org.