Studies have indicated that phonological awareness, which is the ability to recognize and manipulate individual speech sounds, is an essential component in the early intervention of reading disabilities. In The P.A.K. Program, all kindergarten students are taught the fundamentals of phonological awareness. Speech-language pathologists also provide small group instruction for children in first and second grade who are identified as being at risk in the area of phonological awareness skills, and train parents and teachers in incorporating phonological awareness activities into one-on-one reading sessions.

The Arts Education Program, which takes place at Burr Elementary School in Wicker Park, offers a long-term, classroom-based music curriculum that includes weekly lessons on the fundamental concepts of music and music history, lessons that incorporate music into the general curriculum, monthly concerts by artists from the Chicago Chamber Musicians, and hands-on music-making activities.

SCORE Tutoring Program matches at-risk children in first through ninth grades living in Chicago's Cabrini Green, Washington Park and Uptown neighborhoods with trained graduate student and working professional volunteers for one-on-one tutoring sessions two evenings per week. In addition to helping students with homework, tutors are trained to use "concept packages" created by Chicago Youth Programs, which teach grade level material in a child's weak subject areas, thereby giving him/her a second chance to learn important fundamentals necessary for educational success.

During the 2001-02 school year, Deerfield High School students worked to restore a downstream section of the Middle Fork of the North Branch of the Chicago River, which runs through the school property. The students' success in restoring the downstream side made the school aware that the upstream side needed to be addressed as well. The upstream restoration efforts in Wetlands Restoration: Part II will increase species diversification, restore the natural vegetation and river habitat, and allow the river to serve as an outdoor laboratory for hands-on environmental education and research by Deerfield High School students and students from surrounding communities. All students enrolled in a science class at Deerfield High School will be involved in the restoration project.

The Aunty Math© website presents real-life math challenges in a familiar story-based context for children in school classrooms or home schooling programs. Children submit their answers online, and then receive individualized comments from a Math Response Specialist. Instead of focusing on a set path of rules, children are encouraged to pursue multiple methods of solving the challenge, which builds their self-confidence, independent thinking skills and problem solving skills. Aunty Math© website users can also read other children's submissions and responses, thereby demonstrating the value of sharing ideas and working as a team to solve challenges. The website math challenges, which are updated twice a month, are offered free of charge. JCCC Foundation funding will help support the salaries of the Math Response Specialists.

The College Readiness and Support program helps at-risk students complete high school and prepare for college, then actively supports them throughout their college years and beyond. The program emphasizes academic achievement and expanded career options while also addressing social, environmental, and economic factors in a youth's development. Services for high school participants include one-on-one mentoring, academic support, service learning, writing practice, cultural enrichment and recreation, college readiness workshops, parent workshops, and computer access. Serving the city's Near Northwest Side neighborhoods, College Readiness and Support will help over 500 high school participants during the 2002-03 school year.

This docent training program engages 20 disadvantaged high school students in challenging, hands-on, arts-based learning experiences that prepare them to lead tours of the Conservatory, work alongside horticulturists propagating and caring for plants, and support younger children in educational, plant-related activities. In the process, docents learn important personal development skills such as leadership, personal responsibility and accountability, interpersonal communication, and teamwork. The program retains docents for two full academic years, with second-year docents receiving advanced training and a paid work experience at the Conservatory.

Currently 69 Chicago public schools offer Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D) textbooks to students who cannot use standard print because of visual, perceptual or physical disabilities. Schools in some low-income neighborhoods, however, are unable to cover the costs of the RFB&D recorded textbooks. JCCC Foundation funding will allow RFB&D to provide the playback machines needed for use with RFB&D's digitally recorded textbooks to several classrooms in three Humboldt Park schools free of charge.

Have Art, Will Travel is an arts outreach program that serves children and adults with developmental disabilities where they work, live, or go to school. Professional artists travel to sites, ranging from other social service organizations to schools, to conduct art classes. Each site chooses the class type (visual arts, dance, writing, drama and music, etc.), and then Little City designs the class to fit the needs of the organization. Class sessions usually last five to ten weeks, with Little City artists visiting several classes a day in the schools. The grant from JCCC Foundation will fund classes at two Chicago public schools.

Shepherd's Flock Intergenerational Child Care Center is one of the few child care centers located on the premises of a home for older adults. The program offers children ages six weeks to five years old a chance to interact on a regular basis with adults in their eighties and older, which helps children develop a healthy and realistic view of aging. Intergenerational activities include music, art, language enrichment, full immersion Spanish language learning, free play, cooking, science, reading and math readiness activities, and school field trips. JCCC Foundation funding will support the musical and arts activities of the program.

The Morton Arboretum offers schools the opportunity to participate in structured field study at the arboretum that is linked to classroom activities focusing on Illinois Learning Standards' requirements for science, but few teachers have the training or experience to conduct field work and relate it to classroom activities. In Teacher Training, elementary, middle, and high school teachers from Wheaton Warrenville Community Unit School District 200, Naperville Community Unit School District 203, and Indian Prairie School District 204 are trained in a new, science based curriculum in natural history focusing on three ecosystems - woodlands, wetlands, and prairies. Teachers will attend a weeklong, field-based workshop in summer 2003 where they will be given field equipment, pre- and post field study activities, and training in how to incorporate their field experience into classroom projects.

Kids Meet Art^TM is an innovative, arts education program that offers hands-on, one-on-one training in art, music, theater, writing, dance, and Japanese culture by bringing professional artists into northwest suburban K-12 classrooms to introduce students to various art forms. The JCCC Foundation grant allows Kids Meet Art^TM to conduct a one-day workshop for elementary and middle school students from six schools located in Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Elk Grove Village, Itasca, Mount Prospect, Palatine and Wheeling on either haiku poetry or the making of Japanese cloths known as fukusa.

For over a decade, Pleasant Ridge students have been interacting with nature in the school's own Japanese garden. In this project, Pleasant Ridge students will create a prairie garden near the existing Japanese garden, which will allow them to compare the structure of traditional Asian landscaping with the native Midwest prairie; learn of the natural balance between plants, animals and humans necessary for the prairie to survive in Illinois; and participate in large scale math and science projects. Additionally, although the fourth-grade curriculum calls for a complete study of the natural state of the prairie, prairie gardens in the area do not allow students to physically interact with the prairie, making it hard for students to complete some of the required tasks. Having a living example of the prairie close at hand, which the students can physically study and interact with, will be a powerful teaching tool for the school.

Research has shown that injuries are the leading cause of death in children and adolescents, and that up to 95% of them are preventable. Get PreACTical!^® is an unique and interactive injury prevention/disability awareness program that teaches middle school youth: 1) the consequences of risky behavior by having the youth "experience" life with a disability; 2) ways to change risky behavior; and 3) how to avoid the pressures of reverting to risky behaviors. Examples of behavior changes include wearing a bike/skateboard helmet, wearing a seat belt, healthy eating habits, and avoiding drugs, alcohol or any other behavior that places them personally at injury or disease risk. JCCC Foundation funding will help Get PreACTical!^® reach 500 middle school youths in Cook and DuPage Counties during the 2002-2003 school year.

The goal of the Rochelle Lee Fund (RLF) is to help public school children across Chicago become fluent and willing readers by training teachers to use books other than textbooks, paid for by RLF, throughout the curriculum. In The RLF 2002-03 Streams Program, teams of RLF-trained teachers in consecutive grade levels provide a "stream" in which students move from one RLF classroom to another over a period of three or more years. As a result, students go from a room that is rich with books, and ample opportunities to read and discuss them, to another book-filled classroom. Their interest in reading, therefore, is not only sustained, but developed further. Stream teachers within each school collaborate once a month to improve their teaching and increase book choices and literacy opportunities for their students.

Art Up Close is a program for Chicago public elementary and secondary school students on the city's South and Southwest Sides that integrates the museum's special exhibitions into the school curriculum. Through a combination of pre-visit preparation, inquiry-based museum visits and hands-on art activities, students will explore art and its context, build upon their basic knowledge of key curricular subjects such as science and social studies, and express their own ideas through art. Art Up Close will focus on three exhibitions during the 2002-03 school year: 1) Greco-Roman antiquities, 2) Japanese lacquer boxes, and 3) Portraits of South Side teenagers by Chicago photographer Dawoud Bey, accompanied by audio-portraits of the teens by radio producer and writer Dan Collison.

Starfish Learning Center, an after school youth center that is dedicated to countering gang influence on youth in Chicago's East Rogers Park neighborhood by offering healthy, alternative activities that educate and empower children, recently developed an art program that focuses on three areas: 1) creative arts through painting, crafts, and T-shirt designing; 2) performing arts through training in clowning, puppetry, acting and dance; and 3) media arts by training children behind and in front of the camera for various projects including a filmmaking project scheduled for summer 2003.

Project DEKIRU, the Japanese word for "it can be done," is a school-wide effort to foster an integrated school community by promoting a deeper understanding of cultural differences and similarities between Japan and the United States. The program will be conducted through Japanese language instruction for early primary students; ongoing Japanese language curriculum development and assessment; an instructional, project-based K-6 multicultural celebration; and other investigative projects related to language acquisition and cultural knowledge.

Most students at Waukegan High School do not value their own city. In this project, students in eleventh-grade American Literature/Composition classes will research the population composition, business structure, and power-base of Waukegan, specifically the city's immigration patterns and growth as an industrialized urban center. Students will then analyze their research, write about their findings, and project the impact of current immigrants on the future. The students' stories and findings will be compiled into a final product to be shared with the Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 School Board, Waukegan Historical Society, Waukegan Public Library, and Waukegan High School Library. The format of the final product - a book, PowerPoint presentation, or videotape - will be chosen by the students.