Andrea Faye Hart is a community journalist and teaching artist who experiments with citizen media to especially empower youth. She runs a civic media and a catharsis through media-making programs for Free Spirit Media, as well as a verse and investigative journalism program for Young Chicago Authors. In this article, as a teaching artist working…

In this article, the author talks about a summer program at the African American Adolescent Male Summer Literacy Institute which aims to improve literacy skills of black male teens. The African American Adolescent Male Summer Literacy Institute is now in its fourth year at the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC). Alfred Tatum, director of the…

This article describes the work of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy[R] (IMSA). Three "case stories" of students from IMSA illuminate some of the: (1) challenges and opportunities inherent in igniting science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) talent in urban youth and ensuring their success; (2) principles for…

Teaching in an urban setting is not usually easy and sometimes leads to frustration. Some teachers have to find new and creative ways to address the challenges and situations they encounter in certain schools and with certain groups of students. This article describes each of four "bailout" structures that the author came up with to make…

Describes dancer Katherine Dunham's philosophical system and her application of the "Dunham technique" in the Children's Workshop of the Katherine Dunham Museum in East St. Louis (Illinois). Contends that Dunham incorporates rites of passage to transform the lives of participants through intense involvement in art as a way of life. (AF)

The plan describes a continuing effort in Illinois to improve access to education and school success for homeless children and youth. The Illinois plan was revised to meet the requirements of the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Amendments Act of 1987 by reforming the original document into sections that highlight the major requirements of…

A program of research related to school-based models for urban children's mental health is described, with a particular focus on improving access to services, promoting children's functioning, and providing for program sustainability. The first study in this series responded to the urgent need to engage more families in mental health services, and…

Sport and recreation-based approaches to the social problems of "at-risk" urban youth have become very popular in recent years. Yet the lack of a proper theoretical understanding of these initiatives threatens to minimize their effectiveness and could generate a backlash against them. To begin to fill this void, this paper presents a…

The Chicago Youth Development Project was an action-research program jointly undertaken by the Chicago Boys Club and the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research to test whether a program of aggressive street work and community organization in the core of a city could reduce delinquency among youth living there. The report presents a…