Jim Curtain and Dasan Robinson talk to students about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.
Enhancement / Expansion
Cabrini-Green, bordered by some of Chicago’s more affluent residential areas, is a rapidly changing neighborhood with gentrification leading to radical land-use transformation. Due to this real estate and demographic shift, two schools in the neighborhood, including Byrd, were shut down in the spring of 2004. Building on its initial success at Byrd however, Urban Initiatives expanded to two other schools in the Cabrini-Green neighborhood: Jenner Academy and Schiller School in the fall of 2004. Urban Initiatives started a third program at L.E.A.R.N. Charter School in the Lawndale neighborhood and recently expanded to the Bronzeville community working in Crispus Attucks School.
Urban Initiatives currently serves 120 students in the 1st through 4th grades. Teachers and Administrators have praised the students’ success and growth. Urban Initiatives has achieved significant progress toward its goals as evidenced by the following changes in program participants, which have been reported by teachers, administrators and parents:
- Improved attitudes in the classroom and the home
- Greater respect for the need to work together on projects
- Improved classroom attendance
- Improved classroom performance
- More positive view of their future
- Increased attention from the parents
As word of the success of Urban Initiatives has spread, Dower and Isherwood have been contacted by other schools seeking to have them replicate the program at these schools or provide guidance as to how school staff can implement their own program. One such school is Scheider Elementary in Lathroop Homes, another public housing development on Chicago's northwest side. Finally, Urban Initiatives would like to replicate the program at a predominantly Hispanic school in the near future.