Juvenile Protective Association

Across Chicago, kids are hurting. And when you’re hurting, learning is the last thing on your mind. At the Juvenile Protective Association, our vision is that no child ever has to struggle alone. We work to achieve this through our mission of bringing compassionate, innovative mental health resources directly to children in need and the adults who support them.

All Stars Project of Chicago

The All Stars Project of Chicago (ASP of Chicago) works in Windy City neighborhoods on the South and West sides that have been hardest hit by poverty and violence. Since our launch in 2007, ASP has touched the lives of over 40,000 young people through the All Stars Talent Show Network, the Leslie J. Raffel Development School for Youth and other development programs and initiatives.

Project Exploration

In 1999, Gabrielle H. Lyon and Paul C. Sereno co-founded Project Exploration. Lyon, an activist and educator, and Sereno, a paleontologist and explorer, designed programs that engage small groups of students in meaningful work alongside scientists and caring adults.

These initial programs were intended to launch ongoing, long-term relationships with students and give them the opportunity to experience firsthand the wonder and discovery that scientists access in their professional lives. Since science subjects are culturally and educationally reserved for academically successful students, the founders worked especially hard to engage students who weren’t academically successful.

In our education system, science is presented as an inaccessible academic discipline and is thus taught in a way that excludes certain students. However, studying science is an intellectual and imaginative experience that offers students a rational, evidence-based way to make sense of the world. Whether students pursue careers in STEM or not, program design and delivery is intended to provide them with critical social and emotional skills and support them in becoming astute problem finders and solvers.

Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness

CCH builds power and makes change through community education, strategic campaigns, and policy initiatives that target root causes of homelessness across Chicago and Illinois.