Alfonso Sevilla was a CPS student when he first encountered Peoples Gas's Bright Futures U program. Today, he's a project worker at the company, and a living example of what the program set out to create.

Bright Futures U moves participants through three intentional phases: Explore, Experience, and Apply. It starts in the classroom, reaching high school juniors at schools across the city, giving them a first look at the gas industry and the people who make it run. From there it becomes hands-on — practicing real field procedures, simulating meter installations, learning the work by doing it. For Alfonso, those training sessions didn't feel like work. They felt like something finally clicking.

The program is deliberate about which neighborhoods and schools it reaches, because Peoples Gas understands that talent shows up everywhere. The people most likely to grow aren't always found through conventional channels, and Bright Futures U was designed with that in mind.

Beyond trained workers, the program produces a sense of belonging. Alfonso describes his colleagues as family. He describes his role, in part, as giving back to kids who look like him and are working just as hard as he is.

"I want to give back because somebody was there to give back to me."

World Business Chicago is proud to recognize Peoples Gas for building a workforce development program that creates that kind of continuity — where graduates become advocates, and the investment compounds over time. That's the kind of institutional commitment that strengthens Chicago's economy from the ground up.

If your organization is thinking about how to build early talent pipelines with that level of staying power, we'd welcome the conversation.