Empowering Youth Through Servant Leadership

Serving People with a Mission (SPM) seeks to provide people from all walks of life with the tools to become servant leaders in their communities; and for these same leaders to go into their communities and give back through service. SPM believes that walking hand-n-hand for and with others will truly contribute to the development of our future servant leaders.

Serving People with a Mission (SPM) is a leadership development and community service 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, based in Chicago, Illinois. During 2020, our founders recognized the need for humane, selfless, and purpose-driven leadership, both globally and within our respective communities. A desire to holistically serve local, underserved communities within Chicago internally motivated SPM’s three founders to establish the organization. Their willingness to do so demonstrated their collective aspiration to help alleviate the daily hardships and struggles of many city residents in need of essential resources. Over the past three years, SPM’s leaders and their partner organizations have committed to walking ‘hand-n-hand’ with the diverse communities around Chicago. Our mission seeks to provide people from all walks of life with the tools to become servant leaders in their communities; and for these same leaders to go into their communities and give back through service. Furthermore, our vision is to act as a liaison between our participants and our partner organizations by exposing them to community service opportunities. We aspire to equip our participants with the right tools to serve their communities and be successful in their education and the workforce. Our core organizational values of community, resilience, inspiration, impact, equity, and service define the work we perform and the impact we produce. These values may most notably be seen in the execution of our services, the first being our Hand-n-Hand Leadership Program (‘Hand-n-Hand’), a professional development and mentorship program tailored specifically for advancing underserved youth. Following an initial pitch-and-approval process, SPM executes Hand-n-Hand in educational institutions within underserved communities to supplement existing curriculums and make a positive difference across the city’s youth population. In other words, Hand-n-Hand acts as a unique example of a youth-led and youth-focused endeavor. Additionally, we operate our Giving People Donations Drive (‘Giving People’), a service centered around the redistribution of essential, everyday resources, to assist community members in need, as well as promote environmental justice and sustainability. Resources in the redistribution process include casual and professional clothing, nonperishable food items, and hygiene products. Giving People mainly interacts with city residents through involvement in resource fairs, as well as spearheading pickups and drop-offs of said resources. The latter of these channels functions on the basis of individuals submitting electronic request forms to either supply or obtain resources.