“Our real aim is to address the wealth gap,” said Eula Burge, CEO of Proactive Community Services in Flossmoor. “We want to connect people to jobs that have benefits and things that are sustaining across generations.”

That goal just got a major boost. PCS is one of five Northern Illinois nonprofits receiving a $100,000 Impact Grant from Nicor Illinois Community Investment (NICI). The $500,000 in total grants will fund economic mobility and small business support programs in Rockford and South Suburban Cook County. For PCS, the award will strengthen its workforce development programs and launch a new pre-apprenticeship initiative in early 2026 in partnership with OAI, Inc. (Office of Applied Innovations)

Burge said PCS will use the grant to build on work it is already doing while preparing to add new programs. “We haven’t started the pre-apprentice yet, we’re working on that,” she said. “But we have been doing a lot of workforce development.”

That work includes helping people like Nicholas DeCortes, a former client who overcame substance use, completed PCS’s recovery program, and now works as a peer with the agency. “He had used substances, he subsequently went through our rap program, he got cleaned, and now he has a job with the very place that he went to for treatment.”Watch Nico’s story here.

Another example is Roberta Coleman, now part of PCS’s executive staff. “Roberta came to the program and we hired her– she’s been with us for 10 years,” Burge said. “We sometimes employ people at the agency who have come through our programming.”

Burge said the organization’s services reach adults 18 and over, focusing on moderate-income individuals from across the South Suburbs and beyond. “When we do our workshops, we may have anywhere from 10 to 15 individuals in the workshop, we want to give them marketable skills, and then we want to talk about careers with them. 

“Jobs that have benefits, jobs that are sustainable across generations, not just retail where you work a bunch of hours and don’t get sick leave or health insurance.”

She said PCS is working to add new training areas and certifications. The organization has a history in healthcare training, including a past partnership with Governors State University that helped participants become CNAs, LPNs, RNs, and nurse practitioners. 

Partnerships are central to PCS’s model. “We always try to find opportunities to partner with other organizations so that we can have wraparound services and we can just build our stuff,” Burge said. 

Those partnerships include OAI for advanced training, Cornerstone Development Corporation for warehouse and forklift work, and soon, local banks for financial literacy programming. “We’re going to meet in September to talk about what would that look like to have the banks involved in financial literacy,” she said.

Health and wellness are also part of PCS’s approach to workforce readiness. “If you’re not healthy, you can’t work,” Burge said. PCS operates a health and wellness suite in Homewood with two exam rooms, staffed by nurse practitioners, we try to incorporate that piece where you know how to eat, having wellness at the forefront.”

These services are designed to connect across programs, she said, “If you’re in our HIV programming but you need a job, we’re going to pull you over to our job readiness program. We want people to have sustaining jobs across generations.”

Funding, she admits, is always a challenge. “What’s happening now is not good for any nonprofits,” she said, noting delayed federal grant payments and competition with larger, city-based agencies. That is why the NICI support feels different. “They get it, because they funded us for three years.”

This year marks PCS’s 20th anniversary. For Burge, the milestone is personal. Her brother died of HIV just 20 days after diagnosis in 1997. “I did want to be that resource,” she said. A single mother who grew up in public housing, she earned her bachelor’s degree from Governors State University at 54 and her master’s from Spertus two years later.

When she talks about the new training room funded by NICI, her pride is clear. “When people come, I want them to feel valued,” she said. “NICI made that possible.”