Keeping Kids Off The Block

Grantee Kids Off The Block's Diane Latiker was featured on WTTW talking about her efforts to keep kids off the street in her neighborhood, Roseland. View the story here.

Program Spotlight

Hooked on Drums

Hooked On Drums™ brings the upbeat, inspiring rhythms of African djembe drumming from the Malinke people in Guinea, West Africa to kids in urban Chicago. We offer Hooked On Drums classes and youth drum performances through the Chicago Park District, local schools and community organizations. The program gets kids hooked on authentic, traditional music, allowing them to explore African heritage while sharpening their minds on a complex musical idiom with irresistible rhythms. Hooked On Drums™ is deeply committed to using African music as a vehicle for fostering creativity, curiosity, discipline, self-confidence and well-being in inner-city, at-risk youth of diverse ethnic backgrounds.

Website: www.hookedondrums.org

Afterschool Program Research

Factsheets Outcomes Pager High school students participating in Chicago´s After School Matters program—which offers paid internships in the arts¸ technology¸ sports¸ and communications to teenagers in some of the city´s most underserved schools— have higher class attendance¸ lower course failures and higher graduation rates than similar students who do not participate in the program. (University of Chicago, Chapin Hall Center for Children, 2007)