Through Mighty Acorns, a youth stewardship program offered by the Lake County Forest Preserve, Adler Park students work to restore the habitat of a local forest preserve by collecting seeds, cutting brush, and planting native trees and plants. After each visit to the forest preserve, students reflect on their experiences through journal writing, art projects, poems and essays. Through the JCCC Foundation grant, Adler Park School will add a technology component to these traditional forms of reflection. Students will document their visit to the forest preserve with digital cameras and video camera, and then put their knowledge and documentation together to create their own unique web pages, allowing them to increase technology skills and share their experiences with the world.

The program provides positive adult interaction and role models for at-risk youth in grades K-12 from six Chicago schools through an in-school curriculum and after-school activities, including leadership development and self-esteem cultivation, community-based African culture educational sessions, cultural and educational projects, academic tutoring, college tours, field trips, and community-service projects. This program helps participants form healthy identities, find positive alternatives to destructive behaviors, and improve the quality of life in their community.

The LISTO After School Program serves disadvantaged elementary school-age children through a structured after-school educational program that is also an early intervention initiative aimed at keeping them out of gangs and in school. LISTO offers many activities including athletics and tutoring in math, reading, story writing, art, technology, and geography, and supplements these activities with innovative workshops that teach children the dangers of substance abuse, how to avoid gang violence and stay out of gangs, and how to keep safe in a violent environment.

Working in partnership with the Brookfield Zoo, Brookfield-LaGrange Park School District 95 is planning an ambitious new multi-year program that involves all students in restoring local habitats. Through Brook Park School Native Plant Nursery, kindergarten, first and second grade students will be responsible for growing a variety of native prairie, savanna and woodland plants for use in restoration projects. Students will learn basic botany to prepare them for their role in caring for the seed nursery. Native plants will be planted in the spring of 2002, and the students will collect the seeds in the fall. Fifth and sixth grade students will use the seeds to restore a local park.

This program boosts the aspirations and self-confidence of Chicago public elementary school students from three under-served, low-income neighborhoods by providing an educational enhancement program that allows students to form ongoing relationships with caring adults. Three Saturday mornings a month, Chicago Cares volunteers meet with students at Henderson, McCormick, and William Penn schools to engage them in hands-on educational projects using a curriculum that integrates reading, writing, social studies, science, art, and public speaking. An educational or recreational field trip is also incorporated into the program every month. For many students, these are the only times they venture out of their communities.

This multi-year program is a collaboration between the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and three Chicago public elementary schools (Beasley Academic Center, Howland School, Peirce School) which aims to create whole school change by incorporating music into the teaching of core curriculum courses, including math, reading, science and social studies. Through teacher training and professional development workshops, the Primarily Arts Network arms teachers with tools to use the arts effectively within the classroom to reach students in new ways. Parents and volunteers also participate in the training so they can assist teachers with arts-integrated activities.

Future Voter is a civic education program, run at 22 Chicago public high schools located primarily on the South and West Sides of Chicago, that prepares young people for active participation in this country's democracy through instruction on fundamental principles of civic knowledge and hands-on civic engagement opportunities. The program provides in-class instruction and activities that are individually tailored to each class. Examples of activities include: voter registration; school-wide mock elections and mock candidate debates; guest speaking engagements from local politicians; internships at community service organizations; and field trips to city and state government institutions.

In this innovative service learning project, fifth grade students research, make, market and sell their own dog cookies, donating the proceeds from their sale to an organization for service dogs assisting people with handicaps. After the sale of the dog biscuits, the recipient organization conducts a school-wide assembly to demonstrate the significance of service dogs, increasing students' awareness of disabilities and differences and the importance of helping others. The project focuses on critical thinking, technology, writing, public speaking, nutrition, and math, and teaches independence, high-level thinking, strong personal values, and problem solving.

Project Hakken, the Japanese word for discovery, is a school-wide effort to expand the existing Japanese as a second language program. Currently Japanese language instruction is required for all first and second grade students, and is offered as an elective course for third through sixth graders. However, as there is no textbook available, the entire curriculum was developed in-house. A great need exists to acquire and produce additional teaching materials, as well as to evaluate the existing lesson designs and to develop the next level of instruction. JCCC Foundation funding will provide stipends to ensure that planning for enhanced instruction and the development of assessment measures take place, as well as provide assistance and resources for a school-wide inquiry-based multicultural project and a fourth grade project integrating Japanese language, language arts, social studies, math, and fine arts curricula.

Violence Prevention Project works to change the increased incidence of juvenile violence by teaching children non-violent alternatives to handling conflict. The program provides on-site violence prevention education classes in six public schools on the southeast side of Chicago. Using a 12-week curriculum, students in grades K-12 are guided through discussions and activities related to violence prevention, such as self-esteem building, decision-making, tolerance and diversity, building communication skills, conflict resolution, and identifying violent behaviors. Emphasis is placed on developing strength of character to deal with violence. At the end of the program, each classroom completes a cooperative project reflecting their understanding of non-violence concepts.

Support Our Students Reading System provides families of third grade students who are not reading at their grade level with books, audio tapes of the books, cassette tape recorders, blank tapes and journals, so they may work together to increase literacy and language development. Students and parents listen to the audio tapes and follow along with text to support vocabulary identification, practice decoding skills, and develop reading fluency. After students feel comfortable with the texts through repeated readings, they record their own readings, which are then reviewed by the teacher to assess achievement. Journals are used to reflect on lessons learned in the texts.

The Hubbard High School Book Club is one of the largest and most popular clubs in the school, consisting of 65 active members. Students in this club love to read, but because of a lack of funds, are not always able to have the freedom to choose which books to read. The ability to select their own books will allow them to pursue their own interests and increase their excitement for reading. JCCC Foundation monies will be used to purchase books and sponsor author events and educational field trips.

Adventure Education engages at-risk students and their teachers in an intensive set of exercises designed to keep students in school, improve their academic performance and build important skills needed for success in school and life. Twice a week for ten weeks, facilitators work with students in group activities that teach key concepts for success in school, such as communication, cooperation, perseverance, and creative problem solving. The program culminates in an overnight camping trip where students navigate a challenging ropes course. Through navigating the course both as individuals and in groups, students learn how to support one another emotionally and physically to succeed. Students who participate in this program demonstrate increased attendance, improved grade point averages and increased reading and math scores on state tests.

Literature for All of Us provides creative book group programs to young, at-risk women ages 12-20 in the Chicago area. Irene Dugan Alternative High School serves approximately 30 students who have previously dropped out of, or been expelled from, a regular high school setting. Through Girls' Book Group at Dugan High School, female at-risk students will participate in weekly 90-minute book group discussions and poetry writing exercises, developing literacy skills by sharing ideas, freeing their imaginations and exploring their strengths in a safe and supportive environment.

Manor Hill School uses an innovative reading program called Scholastic Reading Counts!, which allows students to take comprehension tests via computer on selected books and provides customized progress reports on all books read. Unfortunately, many Manor Hill students live in an unincorporated area without public library services, so the school library/learning resource center is the only access to books for some students. Manor Hill will use JCCC Foundation funds to purchase additional fiction and non-fiction books and Scholastic Reading Counts! quiz software.

The Young Professionals in Training Program gives ambitious, hard-working students from under-served neighborhoods the opportunity to earn money by performing in chamber ensembles at various sites throughout Chicago. Through this program, students are able to share their love and knowledge of music with a wider audience, while at the same time learning responsibility, communication, problem solving, and professionalism. The JCCC Foundation grant monies will provide professional musicians with stipends to coach these student chamber ensembles.

Through this program, Nathan Hale Intermediate School will supplement science textbook reading by creating portable science labs containing non-fiction books, fiction books, and scientific instruments such as telescopes, mirrors, data collecting and analyzing tools. Students will read fiction and non-fiction books relating to the topics covered in their science textbook, and will then use science tools to complete a wide variety of hands-on activities that correlate with the books and textbook. The school will also use grant monies for field trips to downtown museums to further enhance the science concepts learned through the portable labs and books.

The Preschool Literacy Enhancement Program will equip the Nursery's five small classroom libraries with literacy stations including a Reading Center containing books and magazines; a Listening Center to listen to records and tapes; and a Writing Center to write and trace. These literacy stations will be available to children throughout the day and can be coordinated with other classroom projects, activities or areas. An early childhood literacy consultant will also be hired to work with teachers in expanding the literacy curriculum, and to provide parent workshops.

Through the Arts Exchange Program, Steppenwolf presents multicultural images of success and opportunity to today's under-served youth. Steppenwolf produces two plays each year for the Arts Exchange audience of 10,000 students and teachers. The chosen plays focus on telling a Chicago story, bridging the experience of live theater with a piece of Chicago history or the experience of a particular Chicago community. Study guides for each production are distributed to the participating classes one to two months in advance of the performance, and a lively discussion between students and cast members takes place immediately following each performance. For many students, this is their first experience with live theater.

Clap, Sing and READ!® uses the power of music to advance literacy for kindergarten through second grade students in six Chicago public schools. Parents are encouraged to attend weekly classroom lessons throughout the school year with their children, and together they learn the rhythm of words through music and build vocabulary through creative repetition. Clap, Sing and READ!® employs multiple senses in reading activities, making the curriculum effective for all children regardless of their learning style - visual, auditory, or kinesthetic.