SPRINGFIELD – Youth participation in Illinois elections would increase under legislation that State Sen. Mattie Hunter voted for on Thursday.

The Illinois Senate passed a measure to create automatic voter registration for Illinoisans.

"Increasing youth participation will allow a necessary voice to be heard in our political system,” said Hunter, a career advocate for youth rights. “Today, we’re moving Illinois forward by making it easier for residents, especially young people, to exercise their voice and their right to vote.”

Read more ...

SPRINGFIELD – Critical dollars may soon keep youth employment and after-school programs open for at-risk youth, hot meals at the doorsteps of seniors and timely breast and cervical cancer screenings available for women and men.

Today, State Senators Mattie Hunter and Donne Trotter backed a bipartisan funding proposal to restore the state’s critical social services.

"Keeping our social safety net intact will help residents in needs find the services that keep them healthy, safe and for many youth, off of the streets," said Hunter, a member of the Senate Human Services and Public Health committees. "These critical dollars will help prevent our youth from entering the criminal justice system by creating educational and occupational opportunities for them."

Read more ...

CHICAGO - Local students and residents attended an alternative, educational career fair hosted by State Sen. Mattie Hunter on Tuesday at VanderCook College of Music.

Sen. Hunter's Alternative Pathways Career Fair offered creative and diverse occupational opportunities including the military, cosmetology, massage therapy and the performing arts.

"We’re helping connect Chicago students with non-traditional post high school opportunities, as they create their own unique path to adulthood,” Hunter said. “In addition to empowering interested teens with the many alternative routes outside of a traditional four-year college experience, we’re also giving recruiters access to Chicago’s brightest youth. Encouraging young people to map out their plans following high school, is crucial in this day and age.”

The event was open to high school teens, parents and adults seeking alternative educational career opportunities.

Read more ...

CHICAGO – Elected officials, community leaders and youth to discuss nearly 90 percent unemployment rate for minority youth during an Illinois State Senate hearing at 1 p.m. on Thursday, April 28 at the Bilandic Building in Chicago.

"Our youth are the hardest hit when communities suffer from unemployment," said State Sen. Mattie Hunter, who organized statewide hearings in 2014 to create youth jobs. "We live in a state where nearly 90 percent of our black and brown youth are unemployed. We cannot pretend our youth are going unharmed by our dissolved social net, or that the budget impasse isn't causing our state to fail our young people."

Roughly 89 percent of Black males aged 16-19 and 87 percent of Hispanic males were jobless in Chicago in 2014, according to a study by the University of Illinois Chicago's Great Cities Institute.

Read more ...