ONE SUMMER CHICAGO & THE CHICAGO LEARNING EXCHANGE PARTNERSHIP:

2018 WRAP-UP REPORT

ONE SUMMER CHICAGO & THE CHICAGO LEARNING EXCHANGE PARTNERSHIP: 2018 WRAP-UP REPORT 1

WHO WE ARE
The Chicago Learning Exchange (CLX) is on a mission to inspire and support innovation that equips digital-age
learners and leaders to close Chicago’s opportunity gap. We envision Chicago as a connected community where all
learning counts.

CLX is a nonprofit organization that strives to remake learning so that it is enhanced by technology, driven by
learners’ interests, and connected to future opportunities. CLX works closely with a growing community of
over 200 organizations to achieve its N.I.C.E goals: network educators, parents, technologists, employers, and
researchers; ignite innovation through grants; champion ways to remake learning; and equip educators, youth, and
families with the skills, knowledge and insight they need in the digital age.

BACKGROUND
For the third-year, the Chicago Learning Exchange
(CLX) was proud to partner with Mayor Rahm
Emanuel’s One Summer Chicago (OSC) — the second-
largest summer youth employment program in the
nation. OSC brings together government institutions,
community-based organizations, and companies to
provide employment and internship opportunities to
youth and young adults ages 14 to 24. This summer,
more than 31,000 young people were employed
through the program. Summer jobs help young
people develop critical life skills, including financial
responsibility and professionalism, and expose them to
career paths they may not have otherwise considered.
CLX partnered with OSC to provide innovative skill-
building learning experiences to thousands of youth
through LRNG — a national digital learning and
badging platform. LRNG is designed to help learners
develop 21st Century skills to prepare for employment,
explore their passions, and connect their interests to
new opportunities. The LRNG platform is currently
used in 16 cities across the U.S. In each LRNG city, an
organization is responsible for overseeing work related
to LRNG, and in Chicago, this organization is CLX.
Together with OSC partner agencies, CLX supported
young people by offering interactive and exciting
activities focused on preparing for the workplace,
practicing good financial habits, exploring careers, and
building other critical 21st Century skills to support
success during their summer jobs and internships and
beyond. CLX also partnered with MHA Labs to align
“CLX has been a valued partner of
One Summer Chicago and we are
proud to have collaborated on skill-
building LRNG Playlists, which
supported thousands of youth across
Chicago with work-readiness and
financial skills in their summer jobs.
We are particularly excited that
thousands of our youth earned digital
badges by completing these Playlists,
representing their achievements over
the summer. These badges can help
youth unlock future opportunities
through One Summer Chicago.”
LISA DAVIS, DIRECTOR OF ONE SUMMER CHICAGO
all learning activities to 21st Century skills. These skills
ensure youth can thrive in a rapidly shifting economy.
These learning experiences were made available to all
OSC participants, with a particular emphasis on youth
employed through Chicago’s Department of Family
and Support Services, the Chicago Housing Authority,
and the Career and Technical Education Department at
Chicago Public Schools.
ONE SUMMER CHICAGO & THE CHICAGO LEARNING EXCHANGE PARTNERSHIP: 2018 WRAP-UP REPORT 2
THE YOUTH EXPERIENCE
THIS SUMMER ON LRNG, OSC YOUTH
COMPLETED PLAYLISTS AND EARNED
DIGITAL BADGES
A Playlist is a series of experiential activities stitched
together around a common theme. A Playlist may be a
series of entirely digital activities on LRNG, in-person
activities, or both. Playlists equip learners with tangible
skills and competencies that they can apply in academic,
enrichment, and career settings. When a learner success­
fully completes a Playlist, they can earn a digital badge
to recognize their skills and achievements.
A digital badge is a shareable, digital credential that
provides evidence of a meaningful learning achieve­
ment. Learners are awarded a badge by an assessor
when they have completed a Playlist. Learners can also
earn digital badges on LRNG for participating in
in-person programming. Badges may unlock real-world
opportunities, such as showcases of work, additional
learning opportunities, admission to special events, job
shadowing, or internships.
Badges become part of the learner’s lifelong portfolio.
Learners can share badges on social media, profes­
sional profiles (like LinkedIn) and resumes to show off
the skills they’ve mastered. One of CLX’s aims is to
support organizations to incorporate digital badging
into their programs and practices. We envision a
future where employers, colleges, and other
programs recognize anytime, anywhere learning
through the use of digital badges.
OSC has been deeply innovative in its use of badging,
and in 2018 encouraged youth to share OSC badges
earned in previous years to their OSC application. By
sharing skills badges on the OSC application, youth are
able to level up to new job experiences within OSC.
We look forward to continuing to grow this initiative.
Over 8,000 youth accessed LRNG
as part of their summer youth employment.
+17,000 badges were issued to youth
for completing skill-building Playlists and for
demonstrating superb workplace skills like high
attendance, time management, teamwork,
professional attitude, and problem solving.
ONE SUMMER CHICAGO PLAYLISTS AND
BADGES
Together, OSC and CLX designed Playlists and digital
badges to support 21st Century skills development
among OSC youth. All Playlists were designed with the
input of OSC youth to ensure they were relevant,
engaging, and meaningful to young people. All financial
education content was also developed in partnership
with the Economic Awareness Council. Badges were
also earned at the end of the summer for superb
attendance and mastery of 21st Century skills on the job.
CLX also offered 20 trainings to hundreds of OSC
staff and instructors responsible for helping youth
navigate the LRNG platform and encouraging
participation. We are grateful for our amazing
partnerships with participating agencies.
PLAYLISTS
• Be Payday Ready: In this Playlist, youth gained
foundational knowledge in banking and personal
finance. Youth learned how to manage their
timesheets, taxes, and accounts to maximize their
pay. They located banks in their area, explored the
benefits of banking and direct deposit, and created
a summer savings pledge. Youth who earned the
Payday Ready badge unlocked the opportunity to
apply for financial education scholarships offered by
the Economic Awareness Council.
ONE SUMMER CHICAGO & THE CHICAGO LEARNING EXCHANGE PARTNERSHIP: 2018 WRAP-UP REPORT 3

• Be Budget Ready: In this Playlist, youth explored

the benefits of budgeting, created personal budgets,
and heard from other OSC youth about banking tools
to help maximize their savings. Youth who earned
the Budget Ready badge unlocked the opportunity to
apply for financial education scholarships offered by
the Economic Awareness Council.
• Be Credit Ready: In this Playlist, youth explored
the importance of credit and how to begin building
credit. Through interactive simulations, youth
explored the factors that go into building credit
and how credit can help them pay for college and
manage their auto loans. Youth who earned the
Credit Ready badge unlocked the opportunity to
apply for financial education scholarships offered by
the Economic Awareness Council.
• Own Your Job: In this Playlist, youth engaged in
activities about workplace communication, stress skills and competencies related to social awareness
management, accepting feedback, and making a and planning for success.
great impression on their supervisor, and they
defined one action they could take during the ATTENDANCE AND 21ST CENTURY SKILLS
summer to help them in their future. When youth BADGES
completed this Playlist, they earned the Own Your • Attendance Badges: High attendance is a great
Job Badge, which represents that they demonstrated measure of work-ethic, reliability, and conscien­
tious­ness. These badges offer validated external
proof of professionalism in the workplace.

“Being in control of your wealth
means you have to have knowledge
about money. Learning this made
me aware of how much money
and time my parents have invested
in me and my brother.”
YOUTH PARTICIPANT
• 21st Century Skills Badges: At the end of One
Summer Chicago, employers rated their youth
employees on the MHA Labs Working Impact
Employer Survey — a survey about how OSC youth
demonstrated work-readiness skills on the job.
Youth who were rated highly by their employers on
the survey could earn badges in time-management,
professional attitude, teamwork ethic, and problem
solving. These badges offer validated external proof
of their work-readiness and professionalism.
ONE SUMMER CHICAGO & THE CHICAGO LEARNING EXCHANGE PARTNERSHIP: 2018 WRAP-UP REPORT 4

2018 INNOVATIONS
OSC-CHICAGOBILITY AND CLX OSC-MICROSOFT CAREER TECH PROGRAM
This year, OSC launched Chicagobility, a new program AND CLX
model for youth ages 14-15 with an emphasis on project- This summer, for the first time ever, CLX and OSC
based learning. Youth participated in a six-week partnered with Microsoft to create the Microsoft
program to strengthen their community, build civic Career Tech Program: a six-week summer program for
engagement, and create safe communities through a group of Opportunity Youth — 18-24-year-olds who
youth-driven projects. CLX supported Chicagobility were neither in school nor working. CLX developed
youth with a suite of skill-building Playlists focused on a curriculum that combined work-readiness and
exploring personal strengths, skills, passions, purposes, Microsoft Office skills to support youth in obtaining
and career pathways, while connecting their summer entry-level job placements. Through hands-on
experience to future goals. Youth earned digital badges
activities that included LRNG Playlists and badges,
to mark their Chicagobility achievements.
participating youth gained Microsoft Office skills
while they built their resumes, personal budgets,
Playlists included:
personal branding decks, and LinkedIn profiles. When
• Powerful You: In this Playlist, Chicagobility youth
youth earned badges for building Microsoft skills
identified their strengths and skills and connected
and work-readiness skills, they unlocked access to
those skills to potential careers.
• Powering Your Future: In this Playlist, Chicagobility
additional Microsoft training and certifications, paid
youth mapped the paths of professionals they for through this program.
admired, explored career paths they had not
considered, and researched career trends,
educational requirements, and expected pay. “I’ve learned to become trauma
• Powering Your Summer: In this Playlist, Chicago­
informed, responsible, reliable, and hard
bility youth used their summer experience to begin
crafting a resume, researched potential volunteer working this summer. I took a huge step
projects in order to continue to engage in community- forward doing this job that only made
improvement work while exploring careers, and met me better overall. It’s going to prepare
with their Chicagobility coach for feedback on their
skills development over the summer.
me for future jobs elsewhere.”
YOUTH PARTICIPANT
Badges earned through Chicagobility will help youth
unlock additional OSC learning opportunities in
future summers.
ONE SUMMER CHICAGO & THE CHICAGO LEARNING EXCHANGE PARTNERSHIP: 2018 WRAP-UP REPORT 5

Thank you to our lead partners and all of the delegate agencies and staff who work tirelessly to provide Chicago’s
youth with exceptional summer job experiences.

Special thanks to Convergence Design Lab for their support with innovative learning design.