Children with developmental disabilities do not have the same opportunities to attend social and cultural activities and explore their community as other children. Medical appointments, transportation and limited incomes are often challenges to their families. However, these children need experiences to enhance their understanding of the world and to develop important social and daily life skills, as do other children. Blue Cap will provide 36 children who have developmental disabilities with field trips to museums, zoos, or other local attractions that are of educational value during 2006. These trips will provide the children with opportunities to interact with the community and develop social skills and self-reliance necessary for future achievement.

The Near North Magnet Cluster School project is part of Chicago Lights' Partners in Education program serving three elementary schools among the Cabrini-Green housing projects. The NNMC plays a stabilizing role in the schools and community, coordinating literacy and arts efforts in schools that lack resources for both. The students attending these schools live at or near poverty levels and are significantly behind in reading, language arts, and math skills. Funds will go toward the "Festival of the Heart," which is the "closing act" of Chicago Lights' in-and-after-school arts programming, designed to reinforce literacy and self-esteem through memorization, movement, practice, performance and having fun.

The Reading History Initiative strives to give students and teachers in eight disadvantaged middle schools the additional resources and support they need to succeed in rigorous academic inquiry. By engaging social studies, language arts, and reading teachers in a collaborative effort with history professionals, librarians, reading consultants, and parents, Reading History creates a climate which supports advanced literacy. The program encourages students to discover the past while developing the research, critical thinking, academic habits, and communication skills they will need for the future.

In an effort to promote increased reading and writing skills of our students, Child's Voice will implement a Reading is Fundamental (RIF) program for the children in the school program (ages 3-8). The proposed Child's Voice RIF program includes several elements: three book give-away activities with motivational interactive presenters and community volunteers who read with the students; parent education seminars and activities; a book buddy program in which older children read to younger children; literacy workshops for parents, grandparents and other extended family members; and finally a wrap-up celebration to honor the families' accomplishments.

The DuPage Children's Museum will present six performances with accompanying educational materials relating to "Jump to Japan: It's Anime-zing", a three-month traveling exhibition exploring Japanese culture through popular art. The performances - three "Tiny GREAT Performances" by professionals and three "Good Show!" Performances by children - will be designed specifically to address the interests, attention span, and developmental level of the Museum's very young visitors. These performances will introduce very young children to the magic of live performance, to a variety of Asian arts, and to appropriate behavior in the "public performance" setting.

Emerson Elementary School will expand a multicultural awareness program that was initiated last year as an outgrowth of a partnership with the University of Illinois at Chicago. The goals of this program are to increase student awareness and appreciation of the rich multicultural Emerson community, and significantly increase student self-esteem and academic achievement through the development of positive self-concepts in our culturally diverse student population by studying their culture and other cultures. A multicultural program called "Where in the World is Emerson?" will be implemented in the 2005-2006 school year. The focus begins on the local community, and moves outward to Chicago, then Illinois, and the greater world. The students will experience a variety of multicultural learning experiences as they explore and research their region/country throughout the year.

The Evanston Symphony Orchestra (ESO) proposes to enhance its innovative music-to-art program, Play Me a Picture, Paint Me a Tune! This program is already highly acclaimed and runs in public and private schools in Evanston and Skokie. In collaboration with the McGaw YMCA, the ESO proposes to expand this program to more underserved students and their families and to add a focus on music composition. The goal of the project is to engage students in listening to classical music by creating art inspired by the music. This enhanced project will give the students involved an understanding of contemporary classical music, and confidence in their own ability to listen, interpret and create art.

Studies show that low-income students in even the best schools can score two to three times below their classmates from more financially stable families. The Dream Maker's Program is a long-term youth empowerment initiative developed to assist low-income, academically underachieving sixth through twelfth graders in Northwest Cook County. Qualified participants receive transportation from school to the program site, and home afterwards. Each session includes 90 minutes of homework and tutoring in a quiet environment, a nourishing snack, and 30 to 45 minutes of recreation time. Each student's goal is to complete a post-secondary degree from a college or a vocational program.

Hostelling International Chicago will serve 60 CPS high school students through its Cultural Kitchen program. The program is highly collaborative bringing together the CPS Service Learning Initiative, 20 CPS high school teachers and their students, 10 community based organizations along with travelers from around he world staying at the downtown hostel. Cultural Kitchen teaches students to interact with people of different backgrounds and exposes students to the world beyond their classrooms and Chicago. The program fosters cultural understanding, strengthens group communication skills, and guides students through the research of a country of their choice. The culmination of the program is the overnight stay at Hostelling Internaional Chicago when students cook a meal from their focus country and present what they have learned.

Literature for All of Us' Book Group Program is a holistic literacy program for disadvantaged teen girls attending Irene Dugan Alternative High School, which serves some of Chicago's most economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. Financial support from the JCCC Foundation will help Literature for All of Us bring the rewards of literature and poetry to over 30 teen girls through a weekly book group program over the course of the 2005-06 academic year. The program includes giving copies of 2-3 new books to each participant every month, professional facilitation of book group discussions, poetry writing exercises, cultural field trips, and public poetry readings where the girls' original writing is celebrated and shared.

For eighteen years, Marwen has provided high-quality visual arts education, college planning, and career development programs to Chicago's under-served youth in grades six through twelve. Each year, Marwen's School and Teacher Partnerships provide three schools with transportation, custom tailored curriculum, expert artist-teachers, and high-quality materials for twenty weeks of artistic instruction in Marwen's professional studios. Depending on the interests and curricular goals of each partner school, instruction ranges from an introductory art-making course in drawing to advanced architectural design. School Partnerships address Illinois Learning Standards for the fine arts and invigorate the classroom with new learning strategies, encouraging students to awaken and engage their creativity and curiosity. Designed to promote working in teams, School Partnerships also introduce technology and require analytical thinking.

Park View has developed an initiative called Hoshu, an after-school tutoring program similar to the Japanese style academy to help new students who are lagging behind their peers. This program is designed to work with individual students who need additional time beyond the normal school day to better understand the curriculum. Certified teachers will work with identified students three times a week after school. Instruction will be based on individual needs in the areas of reading, math, technology, and higher order thinking skills. Parent involvement will be a required component of the program. The program is aimed to not only provide necessary academic skills, but also improve students' self-esteem and personal well being.

Street-Level Youth Media educates Chicago's urban youth in media arts technologies for use in self-expression, communication, and social change. Las Casas Occupational School is a public alternative high school for "behaviorally disordered" students. Street-Level and Las Casas have created a partnership to develop a music production program to support increased student literacy, foster student engagement and retention, and teach advanced technology-based music production skills through Hip Hop. The Street-Level Music Production program at Las Casas will be fully integrated into the classroom and linked to a language arts curriculum following Illinois Learning Standards.

As students enter middle school, they are faced with complex assignments, greater volumes of work, and increasing teacher expectations. Students are expected to study effectively and perform well on tests, although they do not receive instruction on how to study. The project will involve parents and adolescents attending one of two Chicago Public Schools in a six week workshop in which parents will learn how to monitor their children's homework and students will learn time management, organizational, and study skills, which are essential to academic success. By formulating stronger partnerships with school personnel, parents in the low-income communities in which this project will be situated can gain confidence in their ability to monitor their child's academic progress. Adolescents can also improve their status as independent learners before major decisions are made about their future educational opportunities.

YWLCS, the only all-girls public school in Chicago, provides a rigorous college preparatory education focusing on math, science and technology - fields in which women, and particularly women of color, are seriously underrepresented. The River Project is a real-life science experience in which every YWLCS student uses scientific procedures to investigate the physical, environmental, chemical, and biological aspects of the Chicago River according to their grade level and the type of science class they are taking at YWLCS. Their investigations are presented at a school-wide science, math and technology fair. The investigations are adapted from a National Science Foundation-funded interdisciplinary science curriculum aligned with the Illinois Learning Standards for science. Expeditions to the Chicago River are conducted in partnership with Friends of the Chicago River.