The Link & Option Center, Inc, is a multi-faceted, nonprofit 501(c)3 community-based human services organization that has provided educational support services, mentoring, and intervention/delinquency prevention services to youth and families in South Suburban Cook County since it was incorporated in 1999.

Ms. Green started the agency in response to struggles her teenaged son was experiencing. Lack of focus and direction were beginning to take him down a path away from positive influences and towards educational problems and potential delinquency. As she worked with her son, Ms. Green discovered that her God-given talent was to inspire unfocused youth to stay in school, rise above their situations and strive to achieve their fullest potential.

The initial purpose of the agency was to stimulate and support the education and knowledge of African-American and other minority young adults between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one in the South Suburban Cook County area by helping to strengthen their academic skills, make the transition to post-secondary education and to define their career goals. The ScholarShop program, funded for only one year by the Cargill Foundation and Southland Education to Careers, was the first program offered by TLOC.

The needs of the community have led TLOC to widen its pupose to include prevention, intervention and other public safety-type services. Services now include TeenREACH; mentoring; academic enrichment (tutoring); family-centered referral services; computer training; an alternative to school suspension program; 6th District Court diversion; anger management services; a Kids Cafe nutritional meal program and Juvenile Justice mental health counseling. Vocational Training and substance abuse treatment are also available for youth and adults.

The mission of The Link & Option Center is to empower youth and families with quality prevention and intervention services to create crossroads among systems of care, schools, and communities. Since its inception, the programs at TLOC have been designed to facilitate positive development, foster positive life choices and strengthen academic skills in order to assist young minority youth to make the transition to post-secondary education and define their career goals.