What does it look like when young people connect their faith to the needs of their communities? Together Chicago’s Faith & Service initiative is creating space for Chicagoans ages 13 to 29 to discover purpose, build leadership skills, and put Christ’s teachings into action through meaningful relationships and service.
Established in 2025, Faith & Service is a collaborative initiative to surround young people with caring adults, faith communities, and service opportunities. The initiative partners with local congregations, as well as faith-based and community-based organizations to help young people grow in faith while using their interests and abilities to serve others.
Faith & Service reaches young people through four connected areas:
- Congregational Discipleship, strengthening spiritual formation and discipleship within local churches.
- Specialized Mentoring, partnering with organizations that guide and shape young people through proven mentoring relationships.
- Education & Discovery of Purpose, helping young people build essential knowledge and explore God’s calling on their lives.
- Vocational Readiness, equipping young people with skills and support to develop their careers and futures.
Today, 23 partner organizations are directly serving young people through this shared work. Partners report monthly on the difference they are seeing, and the network gathers in person quarterly to learn from one another, exchange ideas, and identify ways to deepen its collective impact.
This summer, thirty-one participants—including 12 teens—went on the Asian American Christian Collaborative’s Civil Rights Tour. This immersive experience explored the history of Asian American identity, faith, and justice movements. In follow-up survey responses, participants described making deeper connections between their Christian faith and the call to pursue justice, service, and compassionate leadership.
Faith & Service is helping to cultivate a citywide community where young people can be known, discipled, challenged, and empowered to lead. Together Chicago welcomes ideas, connections, and partnerships from congregations and organizations that want to join this work or share service opportunities with the network.