Kevon Williams does workforce and community work on his native West Side of Chicago.
For Kevon Williams, community work started with profound loss, a desire to help on the West Side and a simple question:
Why do so many people feel like success means leaving their neighborhood behind?
Williams, 25, has built businesses and launched workforce and community initiatives on the West Side, a historically underserved part of the city where he was raised. Through Families School of Excellence, which he started last year with his father, and other programs, he works to connect residents with jobs, education and entrepreneurship opportunities close to home.
Much of his work focuses on helping young people build practical skills and career pathways within their own neighborhoods.
“When I was growing up, we were taught to try and make it out of the ’hood,” Williams said. “We were told that it wasn’t the place for us, and so you have all these young men competing in sports or focusing on school to get away rather than reinvesting their success in the community.”
“There are a lot of people in our community that have succeeded, but after they succeed, they go on to other places and don’t come back,” he said. “But imagine all the amazing things we could do in the community if they never left.”
A tragedy in October 2022 prompted Williams to devote himself to community restoration. He was delivering food for his business in Carbondale, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Southern Illinois University when he got a call that his older sister was killed in a shooting that targeted the male friend in the car they were in.
“My motivation to change the community” started with her death, he says.
“I was an early entrepreneur, working as a chef at the time. That’s how I survived school and took care of my daughter, Ryleigh. She’s five years old now and she’s the joy of my life.”
“I had a lot of success, and I was able to scale the business, but losing someone and not having time to grieve, I went through my form of anxiety, depression,” Williams said. “I understand what it’s like to be in that dark place that a lot of people go through.”
Before launching Families School of Excellence in 2025, he started his first business, Ke’s Kitchen, in Carbondale. He provided catering at SIU.
When he got back home to the West Side, he used the same drive in logistics before launching Families School of Excellence.
“Families is a resource service center I founded for my community. It started with me and my father wanting to make a change. I believe that you have to be the change that you want to see in the world,” Williams said. “Now, I dedicate my time supplying families with resources.”
Williams said the Austin-based organization has since expanded into workforce development and job placement efforts, with a focus on helping people enter and return to the workforce.
“I just signed a contract with a partner of mine to expand the business,” Williams said. “We finalized a lumper contract to provide labor loading and unloading containers for a large warehouse. We’ll start off with about 20 jobs, and plan to add over 100 jobs.”
He also serves as chief growth officer at sister organization Ascending Pathways, where Williams taps into his culinary expertise to provide job-skills training.
Williams said his goal is to help the next generation build successful lives within their own communities. He believes even small acts, such as beautifying neighborhoods, can reshape how residents see themselves and their surroundings.
“I believe a clean community is not a poverty community.” Williams said. “Even small things like cleaning up the community are one of the ways to change the way people think and act.”
“I also run a cleanup crew that started with me cleaning up my own neighborhood every Sunday and giving out food,” he said. “That led to a whole moving business where I now employ about 10 more people.”
Many of the challenges facing West Side neighborhoods are tied to disinvestment and a loss of community connection, Williams said.
“We focus on forming the next generation. Youth are more influenceable and about 50% of our youth are not employed,” he said. “Most of them don’t have any post-secondary options within the community. We believe a job can get you far, but skills create a career.”
The work of Williams and the Families School of Excellence has helped connect dozens of people in Austin with workforce training, employment opportunities and support when they need it most. You can support the volunteers at Families and learn more about Williams’ upcoming work here.
Kevon Williams
Founder, Families School of Excellence
Austin neighborhood, Chicago
