Youth Outreach Services

About Youth Outreach Services

Youth Outreach Services (YOS) is a nonprofit serving at-risk young people and their families across Chicago and nearby suburban communities, including the La Grange area. Since 1959, they have offered community-based support that combines counseling, prevention, child welfare, and juvenile justice services. Substance use is one of several challenges they address, alongside abuse and homelessness. Their approach focuses on building on each young person’s existing strengths so they can handle difficult circumstances with confidence and dignity.

Their substance use intervention works with youth whose drinking or drug use has started causing problems. Staff help young people see how alcohol or other drugs are affecting their lives, and then work with them on practical skills to cut back and eventually stop. YOS is also the only provider of substance use screening, assessment, and treatment at Illinois Youth Center facilities in Chicago, Pere Marquette, St. Charles, and Warrenville. For families whose child is involved in the juvenile justice system, this means a single organization may be able to provide care both in the community and inside those state facilities.