Adonis Summerville’s experience shows workforce development investment can change the lives of people in search of an opportunity to grow and thrive.
More than a dozen years ago, he says, the job training he received at Jane Addams Resource Corp., a Chicago nonprofit, gave him a second chance after incarceration and years of couch surfing. Certification to become a computer numerical control operator helped Summerville earn a good living in manufacturing before he returned to JARC as its advanced engineering director.
He teaches the trades that helped him overcome his challenges and achieve success.
“I'm a product of what we do here,” says Summerville, who oversees JARC’s training programs in Chicago, Baltimore and Providence, Rhode Island. “I want to help the next me.”
Founded in 1985, JARC’s job training programs include financial support screening and coaching to help clients meet basic needs, build wealth and create a path out of poverty.
With support from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, JARC also is offering trainees access to health and wellness-related workshops and reduced memberships at partner gyms as part of its wraparound services.
“Those are things like meditation and work life balance,” says JARC President Regan Brewer Johnson. “All of that was done in collaboration with Blue Cross Blue Shield to be able to bring that wellness component into our supportive services.”
BCBSIL’s $50,000 investment is part of its Blue Impact℠ grant program advancing efforts targeting social and economic factors that influence health. More than $4.6 million in Blue Impact grants were awarded to nearly 120 organizations statewide in 2025.
Additionally, BCBSIL joined NASCAR Chicago Street Race in 2025 to present a $20,000 grant to JARC to support its training programs.
“What a great opportunity for us to partner with an organization like JARC,” says BCBSIL President Brian Snell. “Employment and being able to provide for your family is a great part of addressing health in the community.”
Nearly all JARC clients receive social and financial services during job training. Most find jobs during or after training, and more than half of JARC graduates double their salaries in the first year after completing their training.
Even after graduation, clients are welcome to return for assistance, Johnson says.
“We really live by our mission and our values, and people see it through the way that we interact with them, the fact that we care about them, we care about what happens to them,” she says.
Abel Hernandez joined the program at the recommendation of a family friend employed at JARC. The 19-year-old Chicago native didn’t know much about welding or computer numerical control before starting the program, but he wanted to develop skills needed to set himself up for a good-paying manufacturing job.
“The more you find out, the more it interests you,” Hernandez says. “It's crazy to think how many things you could create from a CNC machine. All you have to know is how to draw the blueprint for the machine and make it. It does get complicated. But when you learn, you'll be better.”
The experience and achievements prepare trainees like Hernandez to transform their lives, Johnson says. “They're building networks and they're gaining confidence and growing spiritually and mentally and emotionally.”
