GC GAME CHANGERSACADEMY · CHICAGO, IL Request Partnership
Est. 2016  ·  Chicago, IL  ·  501(c)(3) Nonprofit

Change starts here.
Not someday. Here.

We turn under-resourced youth into workforce-ready leaders — one community at a time. Workforce skills, behavioral health tools, and life competencies, delivered by certified educators and mentors, some with professional sports backgrounds.

Request Partnership See the Programs
50,000+
Students Served
5
States Reached
9
Program Verticals
Our Mission

Closing the opportunity gap — one community at a time.

Game Changers Academy prepares opportunity youth and under-resourced families with the workforce skills, behavioral health tools, and life competencies needed to achieve economic independence and become productive contributors to their communities.

Our Vision

"A nation where every young person — regardless of zip code — has access to career pathways, mentorship, and the life skills necessary to build generational economic stability."

Program Verticals

The Pathway Line

Nine programs, one route to independence. Each stop below is a program vertical, tagged with the federal or private funding streams it's built to align with — tap any stop to expand it.

01
Academic Acceleration Initiative 21st CCLC · Title I Eligible

Before- and after-school support staged by grade — foundational literacy and numeracy in the early years, building toward the study habits and workforce-readiness skills of middle and high school. Proven to reduce chronic absenteeism, one of the strongest early predictors of long-term academic outcomes, in high-need schools.

02
Digital Workforce Pipeline STEM · DOL Workforce · AI Literacy

Students build computational thinking and applied AI fluency through hands-on project work, not lectures. Each cohort is paired with mentors from the tech industry and works with the same tools and workflows used in modern workplaces to solve real problems and build a portfolio they can show. Participants leave with a credential, a body of work, and the technical fluency today's job market expects at entry level.

03
Youth Behavioral Health Program SAMHSA · HHS · CDC

Evidence-based MTSS frameworks and trauma-informed care, equipping students with emotional regulation, conflict resolution, and ACEs-responsive resilience tools.

04
Athletic Leadership & Team Development CDC · DOJ Youth Development

Sports-based positive youth development led by certified mentors — several with professional sports backgrounds — building discipline, teamwork, and leadership through structured coaching.

05
Urban Agriculture, Culinary & Nutrition Pathway USDA Urban Agriculture · SBA · Community Nutrition

Students grow food in a working garden, then carry it into a professional kitchen — learning nutrition science, food entrepreneurship, and how to turn what they grow into a menu and a business. The program builds food literacy and marketable culinary and agricultural skills in communities with limited access to fresh food.

06
Creative Expression & Trauma Recovery Arts NEA · Trauma Recovery Grants

Arts programming designed as both creative development and a mental-wellness tool — reducing behavioral incidents and building focus, patience, and self-expression.

07
Adult Workforce Reentry & Economic Mobility DOL · WIOA

GED preparation, financial literacy training, and workforce-readiness coaching for adults — strengthening a parent's economic position to improve child outcomes.

08
Two-Generation Family Cohesion Initiative HHS · Aspen Institute · Annie E. Casey

Parents and children in shared educational environments — simultaneously addressing youth academic outcomes and adult workforce readiness. Our strongest grant differentiator.

Interchange · Signature Program
09
Conflict Resolution & Personal Safety Development DOJ Violence Prevention

Martial-arts-based physical discipline paired with strategic thinking, conflict-resolution, and de-escalation training — reducing youth involvement in community violence.

Signature Program

The Two-Generation Model

Game Changers Academy's Two-Gen model places parents and children in shared educational environments — simultaneously addressing youth academic outcomes and adult workforce readiness. It's the single strongest predictor of student success we've built a program around, and it's why the funding streams below exist.

Ascend at the Aspen Institute Annie E. Casey Foundation Federal HHS 2Gen Streams
Impact, By the Numbers

What funders check first.

50,000+
Students served since 2016 across Illinois, Kentucky, Georgia, Minnesota & Michigan
30+
Certified educators and mentors, including staff with professional sports backgrounds
9
Program verticals, each mapped to a specific federal or private funding stream
5
States with active school district and community partnerships
Corporate & Institutional Partners

Invest where it counts most.

A direct pathway to measurable community investment — with documented outcomes, employee volunteer opportunities, and co-branded program impact aligned to your ESG and CSR commitments.

Community Champion
Logo placement · 2 program visits · annual impact report
$5K
Program Sponsor
Named program sponsorship · employee volunteer days
$25K
Lead Partner
Co-branded initiative · board seat invitation · full ESG reporting package
$100K
Request a Partnership Deck
Funding & Grant Alignment

Built for how funders already give.

Our programming maps directly onto major federal and private funding streams — workforce development, youth behavioral health, community safety, and family economic mobility.

21st Century Community Learning Centers
U.S. Department of Education
After-school, summer, and extended-learning programming for high-need schools.
WIOA Youth Formula Grants
U.S. Department of Labor
Workforce development and GED/adult-education funding, administered through state workforce boards.
Mental Health Block Grant
SAMHSA · U.S. Dept of Health & Human Services
One of the largest current funding buckets for trauma-informed, school-based behavioral health programming.
Violence Prevention & Juvenile Diversion
U.S. Department of Justice
Community safety and conflict-resolution programming for at-risk youth.
Urban Agriculture & Community Nutrition Grants
USDA
Garden-based agriculture, food literacy, and culinary workforce programming in communities facing limited fresh-food access and diet-related illness.
Arts Education Funding
National Endowment for the Arts
Creative-expression programming used as a trauma-recovery and engagement tool.
Funding & Partnership Inquiry

Let's build together.

Grant officer, foundation program manager, or corporate CSR lead — tell us a bit about what you're looking to fund, and we'll follow up with the right materials.

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