After School Matters
$100,000 in support of the Tech 37 program

Creating networks is a critical life skill that teens must learn. In the technological world, this means becoming computer savvy. In the day-to-day world, this means connecting with people and experiences that can change lives.

After School Matters creates a network of opportunity for young people to prepare for productive futures. It offers programs like Tech 37 – a hands-on computer training course that introduces teens to computer networking, web site design, and navigating the Internet.

This is one of many innovative apprenticeships and programs offered by After School Matters – because the greatest risk to a teen’s productive future is the lure of unproductive afternoons. The organization helps teens learn job-relevant skills, explore career opportunities, and build meaningful relationships with adult mentors in a constructive and safe environment.

Programming is offered through a cluster of local collaborators – usually a high school, library, and park district facility. The result is a true community-based model that maximizes use of public facilities and community resources to reach more than 22,000 underserved teens in their own neighborhoods.

Big Shoulders Fund
$300,000 over three years in support of the Patrons Program

In Chicago’s inner-city, the odds are stacked against children achieving long term success in their lives. Poverty dramatically limits their options and opportunities, and the city’s high school drop-out rate is among the highest in the country.

The Big Shoulders Fund believes that a Catholic education offers at-risk children the greatest possibility of a brighter future. Statistics speak for themselves: The graduation rate among Chicago’s 93 Catholic high schools is an impressive 97 percent – with 86 percent of seniors going on to college.

Unfortunately, many of the city’s Catholic schools are struggling financially. In response, The Big Shoulders Fund provides grants for scholarships, instructional equipment, faculty development, operating support – and important initiatives like The Patrons Program. This “hands-on” program matches a patron – an individual, company or foundation – with a school in a low income community. The patron provides financial support, strategic expertise and planning advice to revitalize the school.

CME Trust will join 39 others patrons in Catholic schools across Chicago – expanding educational opportunities for disadvantaged children and creating meaningful systemic change.

Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection
$25,000 to support tutoring and mentoring programs

In urban areas plagued by extreme poverty, children have few incentives for academic achievement. They often attend underperforming schools. Their aspirations are low, and positive role models are scarce.

Tutoring, mentoring and school-to-work programs like Cabrini Connections make a real difference in the lives and futures of inner-city youth. This organization matches seventh-graders with volunteer tutor/mentors who assist them in completing high school and entering college or the workforce. Since 1993, more than 400 youths have had one to seven consecutive years of hands-on support.

Cabrini Connections is replicating its successful model through the Tutor/Mentor Connection, a marketing initiative that provides the infrastructure and support to launch tutor/mentor programs in low income neighborhoods in Chicago – and across the nation. Today, the Tutor/Mentor Connection links to more than 13,000 stakeholders via a newsletter and its internet website.

A true testament to the power of Cabrini Connections is the growing number of participating teens who have finished college – and returned to serve as mentors to the next generation.

The Great Books Foundation
$470,000 over three years for the implementation of the Junior Great Books curriculum in five Chicago Public Schools

With the click of a video game, a program like Junior Great Books is more important than ever. Because when reading clicks with a child, a lifetime of genuine enrichment awaits.

The novels and stories of Langston Hughes, Bashevis Singer, and Rudyard Kipling are among the noteworthy selections of the Junior Great Books program, which will now reach 3rd, 4th and 5th graders in five targeted Chicago Public Schools.

The Great Books Foundation is the pride of Chicago – founded in 1947 by Robert Maynard Hutchins, then president of the University of Chicago, and scholar Mortimer J. Alder. Its reading enrichment program, Junior Great Books, reaches one million students a year across the nation.

Junior Great Books has proven particularly effective in low-income urban schools. According to a recent study, four out of five schools realized an increase in the number of students meeting or exceeding state standards in reading after one year of the program. The success of Junior Great Books can be attributed in large part to the outstanding training and support that teachers receive, as they spark the intellect and imagination of young readers for the next chapter in their lives.

Mercy Home for Boys and Girls
$750,000 over three years in support of the Human Capital program

The vast majority of youth in foster care lag far behind in school. This is the result of having endured years of neglect and abuse. Acquiring survival skills was far more important than learning academic ones. Getting them back on academic track requires intervention, caring support – and specialized plans to meet their academic and emotional needs. This is the mission of the Human Capital program, the education initiative of Mercy Home.

Mercy Home is one of Chicago’s oldest and most respected child welfare agencies. More than 100 youth who live in its therapeutic residential facilities are enrolled in schools across Chicago. They require – and deserve – special services to help them succeed.

Through the Human Capital program, each student is assigned an education counselor who provides academic guidance, emotional support and in-school advocacy. Students also benefit from intensive tutoring and have access to computers and other resources at Mercy Home’s on-site Learning Centers.

The program is clearly a success: A priority for Mercy Home is to increase scholarship funds for the growing number of college-bound students in its care.

The Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation
$50,000 in support of School Choice Activities in Illinois

The late Nobel laureate Dr. Milton Friedman believed that the voluntary choices of individuals, not the dictates of the state, should guide society. This firmly-held belief shaped his free market economic theories – and inspired him to advance educational freedom through universal school choice.

To that end, Dr. Friedman and his wife, Rose, an economist in her own right, established their foundation in 1955. The school choice movement promotes the use of public funds by parents to pursue the public, private or religious education of their choice.

School choice proponents believe that public schools are failing to properly educate children, particularly inner city youth. The thinking is that government-run schools essentially monopolize the educational market, and therefore have little incentive to provide better services. Much of the research indicates that school choice programs work. Public schools respond positively to competition by improving their performance, and disenfranchised parents gain a stronger voice in the education of their children.

The Foundation currently works in 21 states, partnering with coalitions to establish or expand school choice initiatives. The Foundation will conduct focus groups among key constituencies to frame the issue of school choice for the people of Illinois.

Renaissance Schools Fund
$1.1 million over two years in support of the expansion of the Noble Charter School Network and the Perspectives Charter School Network

That fundamental change is needed within Chicago’s public schools is resoundingly clear. Despite some progress from more than two decades of school reform, large percentages of students – especially those from high poverty neighborhoods – continue to fall well short of academic benchmarks.

Renaissance 2010 is a vehicle for starting over – with a new educational vision. Announced by Mayor Richard M. Daley and Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan in 2004, the initiative will create 100 new public schools for Chicago. A $50 million fundraising effort is now underway to spearhead this effort. Funds support new school planning, incubation, ramp-up operations, and performance evaluation activities.

Replicating successful models is central to Renaissance 2010. Schools such as Noble Charter and Perspectives Charter have already been singled out for their exceptional curriculum, effective operations and high-performance students. In 2007, the Noble Charter School Network launched two high schools focused on math, technology and economics education. The Perspectives Charter School Network opened two new schools: a middle school and a technology-focused high school.

Renaissance 2010 schools are open to all students in Chicago area through a competitive selection process. They are free of tuition – ensuring that all children have access to high-quality schools and expanded opportunities for success.

Youth Services of Glenview, Northbrook & Northfield
$25,000 in support of a capital campaign to build a new facility

Sometimes, communities are a lot like teenagers: they are far more complex than they appear to be on the surface. This is certainly the case for Glenview, Northbrook and Northfield – the communities served by Youth Services. Most of the children and teens served by this organization are low income. Their families live in underserved pockets of poverty surrounded by wealthy neighborhoods. They reside in trailer parks, a military housing complex, and in scattered Section 8 apartments.

Established in 1972, Youth Services serves more than 3,500 children and youth annually across these communities. The organization provides a tremendous range of highly-effective services on a relatively small budget – linking with schools and other local resources to cast the broadest possible safety net. Services include crisis intervention, individual and family therapy, suicide prevention, parenting support, mentoring, and after school programs. A number of initiatives serve the entire metropolitan region, including support groups for parents of bipolar children.

Youth Services is building a new facility on land donated by the City of Glenview. With additional space, the organization will assist many more families that are now on a lengthy waiting list for services.