Chicago SCORES
Chicago SCORES mission is to inspire a lasting dedication to education, healthy living and civic responsibility in urban children.
Program Spotlight
Urban Initiatives is a nonprofit organization that runs a health and education soccer program, called the Work to Play Program, in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). Urban Initiatives’ mission is to is to work with schools, teachers, and parents to boost the physical fitness, health education, academic performance, and character development of children from Chicago’s underserved communities by actively engaging them in safe and structured extracurricular activities through soccer programs. The goal is to reach students at a young age and teach them the importance of exercise and their personal health while also emphasizing the value of education. Urban Initiatives takes a holistic approach to child development in order to provide children, who have the odds stacked against them, with the opportunity to reach their full potential.
Website: www.urbaninitiatives.org
Early childhood education expert James Heckman concludes that a compliment of early education and participation in afterschool programs can reduce initiating drug use among youth by nearly 50 percent (45.8) while reducing the likelihood of them skipping school by half. (Investing in Our Young People, University of Chicago, 2006)