The Youth Job Center raised more than $100,000 to fund its job training and placement programming at its annual gala last month.

A local nonprofit, the Youth Job Center, 1114 Church St., helps 14- to 25-year-olds find employment by providing programs that teach them job and life skills. The April 18 gala at Morgan Manufacturing in Chicago’s West Loop celebrated the center’s 32nd anniversary, the organization said. Northwestern was one of about 20 organizations that sponsored the event.

The gala featured live and silent auctions on more than 100 items, the nonprofit said, with all of the money raised going directly to the organization. Additionally, guests could participate in “raising the paddle,” which allowed donors to contribute money without receiving an item, said Jill Corr, the center’s director of development.

Money was also raised through an anonymous donor, who matched every $1,000 given through “raising the paddle,” Corr said.

Corr said the $100,000 raised at the event exceeded the group’s initial expectations.

Even though this year’s event is over, the center continues to receive donations from the attendees, Corr said.

Corr said the money received will largely be allocated to funding the center’s training and placement services, its core program. Those services consist of job readiness training and career advising to directly place trainees in programming, as well as specific courses such as the Women Invested in Learning and Livelihoods program, which works exclusively with young women looking to advance their careers.

The organization’s president chair Adam Goodman, an NU professor and the director of NU’s Center for Leadership, is one of the center’s donors. He emphasized that the center’s programming made job training available to people who might not have access to higher education.

“Students who come to Northwestern … have lots and lots of opportunities in front of them, and the Youth Job Center works with people who frankly should have as much of an opportunity as Northwestern students do to start a career but don’t have access to the kinds of resources Northwestern offers,” Goodman said.

Although much of the money will go toward certain programming, Goodman hopes his funding will go toward general support of the center.

“I want my gift to be completely unrestricted,” he said. “Something you learn as a board member is that unrestricted dollars are the most precious.”

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