*At 12 p.m. EST today (April 24), Barack Obama will take the stage at the University of Chicago marking his return to the spotlight following a three-month vacation.
As previously reported, the former president will speak to students at an event focused on helping aspiring leaders find new ways to empower their communities and take part in civic engagement.
Obama’s two-day visit to Chicago began Sunday in a private meeting with at-risk young men on the South Side to discuss gang violence, jobs skills and employment. According to the Chicago Tribune, the meeting was with participants in a program called Chicago CRED, which stands for Create Real Economic Destiny. CRED was created by Obama’s longtime friend and former education secretary, Arne Duncan, a former Chicago Public Schools CEO. It serves young people from the Roseland and Pullman neighborhoods, where Obama at age 25 served as a community organizer.
The behind-closed-doors meeting at the Youth Peace Center of Roseland, 420 W. 111th St., was not publicized in advance and was not open to the media. But after the meeting, Obama’s spokesman Kevin Lewis told reporters that the former president “listened to the young men’s stories and shared some of the challenges that he faced growing up.”
The men told Obama they think programs such as CRED, more investment in education and having life coaches in schools, and role models in the community would make a difference, Lewis said.
They envisioned the life coaches as people with whom they could build relationships so they “feel they have someone who cares about them,” the spokesman said.
Obama has mostly stayed out of the limelight ever since Donald Trump took office as president, and reportedly has no plans to talk about his successor at the speech taking place at noon today at the University of Chicago.
“This event is part of President Obama’s post-presidency goal to encourage and support the next generation of leaders driven by strengthening communities around the country and the world,” the school states in its program description.
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