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About Urban Initiatives:
The mission of Urban Initiatives is to actively engage children from under-served communities in extracurricular activities in a safe and structured environment. Urban Initiatives promotes education and wellness and instills in each child the importance of these factors to lifelong development and self-sufficiency.
Urban Initiatives achieves its mission by establishing before and after school soccer programs that provide quality instruction, nutrition education, a disciplined and structured team environment, and coordinated communication between teachers, parents and coaches.
Urban Initiatives is grateful to WomenOnCall.org for their work in connecting dedicated, professional women to volunteer opportunities with Chicago community organizations. Urban Initiatives has benefited greatly from WomenOnCall.org and the commitment of its members. Like so many nonprofits, we have a small staff and all of our employees wear many hats within the organization. WomenOnCall.org has been paramount in helping Urban Initiatives meet organizational needs that we do not have the capacity to meet internally. We would like to share the story of a WomenOnCall.org member who has been volunteering her time and professional skills to help Urban Initiatives have our most successful year to date– Jessica Rio.
About Jessica Rio
Over the past fifteen years Jessica has held a variety of positions in local government. Currently, she is a manager with the Chicago Transit Authority. In addition to her busy professional life, Jessica is passionate about volunteerism and has donated her time with Chicago Cares and the Chicago Cycling Club for many years. She signed up for WomenOnCall.org because, in addition to time, she wanted to volunteer her professional skills with a nonprofit organization that could benefit from her vast work experience and more specifically her writing skills.
Jessica started volunteering with Urban Initiatives in December of 2008 as a grant editor. Each time we have a deadline approaching we email her the grant to overview. She has provided us with incredible input and her recommendations have helped us to have our most successful year of fundraising despite the down economy. Her dedication to making our proposals the best they can be and more understandable to individuals out of our organizations has helped Urban Initiatives to receive grants from CLOCC, Credit Suisse, J.R. Albert Charitable Foundation, The Paine Family Foundation, Richard H. Driehaus Charitable Lead Trust Foundation, and the Springboard foundation to name a few.
Jessica has made a lasting impact on Urban Initiatives in less than a year and we hope to have her as a part of our team for many years to come. It is passionate volunteers such as herself that have allowed Urban Initiatives to grow from working in one school to now serving 12 schools and hundreds of students. The relationship we have established is all thanks to WomenOnCall.org. Though she may not have the time to read and critique every grant we submit, her language has been adapted into our proposals and will continue to be used moving forward. We are grateful for her contributions to Urban Initiatives’ successful year in raising funds to continue to offer opportunities to youth in underserved Chicago communities with our health and education soccer program.
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