Laid-Off Staff Volunteered For A Year To Help Lost Boyz Keep South Side Youth Sports Group Open

SOUTH SHORE — After spending more than a year in a “precarious” financial situation where laid-off staff have volunteered to keep the organization running, a South Side youth sports organization is ready for a new beginning in its newly purchased home.

Lost Boyz Inc. uses baseball, softball and leadership programs to help kids in South Shore and other under-resourced communities develop their social and emotional skills.

Lost Boyz’s staff members have been laid off since July 2025, with some continuing to work as volunteers. The layoffs followed severe financial struggles which threatened to shutter the organization, founder and executive director LaVonté Stewart said.

“By all accounts, Lost Boyz should be closed,” Stewart said.

But a fickle nonprofit funding environment — which Stewart last year cited for the group’s struggles — has been on the upswing with a boost in government grants for Lost Boyz, he said.

Lost Boyz is now nearing a full recovery and thanks to a capital grant from the state, the organization this month purchased a new building in South Shore to call home.

“I’m excited, man,” Stewart said. “We’ve got an asset — people from the community own something in the community.”

Lost Boyz on July 10 purchased the former Catholic Charities WIC Grocery at 1802 E. 71st St. — which shut down last summer — for $530,000 from a company affiliated with East Lake Management founder Elzie Higgenbottom.

Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza presented Lost Boyz with a $500,000 check in June that closed the sale. About $1 million more in state funds will support the building’s renovation, ABC7 reported.

The new headquarters is located next door to the space Lost Boyz has leased for nearly a decade. It will have indoor practice space for the baseball and softball teams, a weight room, classrooms, offices and room for a small cafe serving program participants and neighbors, Stewart said.

The purchase also achieves one of the goals in the South Shore quality of life plan, Stewart said. The plan, released in 2022, called for the development of a youth leadership and sports complex in the neighborhood.

“This is going to be that sports community center, and [neighboring service agency] Lawrence Hall will be that youth community center,” Stewart said. “We want to leave a footprint … where you’ve got multiple spaces that are activated for young people up along 71st Street.”

The 12 staff members who have volunteered over the past year are expected to return to the payroll Sept. 1, Stewart said. That compares to 30 staff on the payroll prior to layoffs.

“If I rush to bring everybody back, even if we land additional funding after this — if [that funding isn’t for multiple years], then I run the risk of the same thing repeating,” Stewart said. “If it’s not sustainable, two years from now, we could be in the same position. I’m kind of fearful of building back too fast.”

Program coordinator Lee Smith is among the staffers who have volunteered to keep Lost Boyz’s doors open. A West Sider who considered starting her own organization closer to home, Smith has instead stuck it out with Lost Boyz “because my passion is with the kids” who participate in its programs, she said.

The new location will be renovated to make it easier to see inside the building from 71st Street, Smith said. The ability for kids to walk past and see practices taking place inside will only further Lost Boyz’s reputation as a safe, neutral space and improve safety and community in South Shore, she said.

“Now you have a baseball and softball clinic right here in the ‘hood, where these kids think that they can’t go nowhere else,” Smith said. “When they walk past, they’re going to see training of kids … from the neighborhood who look just like them.”

Stewart last year cited his organization’s reliance on government grants for its financial uncertainties, and that reliance continues this year.

The group’s revenue is “still too government-heavy,” he said.

In addition to the state’s $1.5 million to purchase and renovate the building, other major grants to Lost Boyz this year include a $571,000 county grant, a $239,000 state grant and $138,000 from the city’s My Chi. My Future program, Stewart said.

Private grants typically carry easier administrative and reporting requirements, but usually come in much smaller amounts. It’s the large government grants that “are really floating us,” Stewart said.

Barstool Sports personality Dave “Big Cat” Katz has also helped Lost Boyz stay afloat by donating $75,000 — funded largely by Katz’s win in the Cubs Charities 50-50 raffle last year. The donation alone covered about 10 percent of the prior year’s budget, Stewart said.

Two days after being presented with the check from last year’s win, Katz won the raffle again and pledged those winnings to Lost Boyz. Katz did not respond to requests for comment.

All told, Lost Boyz is about “90 percent there” in its recovery, while the group is awaiting decisions on a few other public and private grants to provide more cushion for the year ahead, Stewart said.

“Regular folks around the neighborhood who’ve been pouring their love and heart into those neighborhoods, they deserve shots like this,” he said. “That’s what I’m most grateful about.”‘

You can make a donation to Lost Boyz and learn more about the group here.