The Black Star Project

The Black Star Project
Formation 1996 (1996)
Founder Phillip Jackson
Type non-profit organization
Purpose Improving the lives of young African American and Latinos in Chicago.
Headquarters Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Website blackstarproject.org

Founded by Phillip Jackson in 1996, the Black Star Project is an educational nonprofit reform organization located in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago. Its focus is to eliminate the racial academic achievement gap by improving the lives of those living in African American and Latino communities.[1][2] By providing mentoring and tutoring services, the Black Star Project insures that students, parents, and community members become productive citizens in their neighborhoods.[3][4] Jackson says that the reason he wanted to create the Black Star Project was that he saw a need for young people to grow up successfully.

Mission

The Black Star Project's goal is to eliminate the gap between race and education. This gap has been seen as an ongoing problem throughout the history of Chicago. Due to this ongoing problem, This Black Star Program focuses on one on one interactions with students; but also gets parents involved so that they can have positive influences on their children's education. Members of The Black Star Project specifically have seen that the more fathers go out and help, the better the influence is on their child.[5] They aim to connect African American and Latino communities together by providing educational tools for all ages, parent and mentoring programs, school outreach programs, special events, and national initiatives.[3] The ultimate goal for them is to get as many people from the community involved so no one is left behind in this fight for eliminating the racial academic achievement gap.[6]

Programs

The Black Star Project has a selection of diverse programs for both children, parents, and community members. The academic programs that are offered for African American youth, include Saturday University, Math Boot Camp, Private Tutoring, reading academy, and more. There are also parent programs like the Million Father's March, Father's Club and Parent University. The mentoring programs and special events are put in place in order to bring the African American and Latino communities together.[3] Most of the programs are listed on the Black Star Project's official website.

A grant will help further the process of promoting leadership and empowering young black males and the programs that are put in place for their use. In the end, the organization hopes to improve the lives of these young black men by focusing on education reform and fair discipline policies.[7] On June. 24th, 2017, Black Star Project started their fourth annual ceremony for black males’ graduation. At a Mass Black Male Graduation and a Transition to Manhood Ceremony, Philip Jackson says, "To improve violence in Chicago, the best way to improve our city, is to improve these young men." [8]

Academic Programs

The academic programs include Saturday University, Math Boot Camp, Private Tutoring and a reading academy for youth. All the students must register online. The academic programs are completely free except private tutoring.[1]

Saturday University

Saturday University launched in the Spring of 2011, consists of voluntary tutors, workers and organizers, focuses on leading African American youths to improve academical performance including free math, reading, writing tutoring sessions and so on.[9] Moreover, Saturday University also teaches youths to increase self-esteem, study communities history, to engage in academic and to love other people. The program is based on a network of Saturday schools and completely free for children of all races to join for 10 weeks.[1][9]The class sizes are comparable smaller, usually have 15-20 students from diverse grades, includes kindergarten to high schools. The session holds at The Black Star Project's headquarters at 3509 D Martin Luther King DR, but the locations have extended to the communities that far from the headquarter, in a purpose to benefit more kids.[10]

Math Boot Camp

The 2013 National Assessment for Educational Progress(NAEP) reports that, in Chicago, African American children are below a basic level in mathematics performing. Math Boot Camps focuses on 5th through 8th grade students for math tutoring, help youth strengthen basic math conception, and training them on problem solving.[1]

Private tutoring

Assess the area that students need help, and match students with specialized tutors. This is a charged one -on-one private tutoring program or students in kindergarten through 12 grade. Students must available to schedule as low as one hour each week.[1]

Black Male Reading Academy

Target on elementary school children who are in 1st to 4th grade, help the youth to develop good reading behaviors, create a comfortable learning environment, and increase reading comprehension and vocabulary. The National Assessment for Educational Progress report shows read proficient is below a basic level in 8th grade, within Chicago's African American community. Reading skills impact children's future academic performance and career path. the Black Males Reading Academy program want to build a positive life and hopeful future.[1]

Parent Programs

The parent programs include Million Father's March, Father's Club, and so on.

Million Father's March

One of the Black Star Project's national initiative is the Million Father March that started in 2004. The march was started because of the need for father's to support their kids in order for them to have success in school. In this program fathers, uncles, grandfathers, and father figures accompany children on their first day of school.[11] Due to this initiative, an increase was seen in 2004 and in 2007 on the first-day of school attendance. It went up from 86% to 93%.

Fathers Club

This club strives to create affordable events for fathers to spend quality time with their children. Philip Jackson, the founder, and executive director created this program because of the recognition of the importance of a male figure in a child's life.[12] the Black Star Project holds events around the Chicago area to build bonding experience for father to children relationships. Different events that have been held were at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Pavilion, Brookfield Zoo, Shedd Aquarium and more.[13]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "The Black Star Project". Open Society Foundations. Retrieved 2017-10-24.
  2. ↑ "Initiative seeks mentors to reduce violence". ABC News. 2010-03-22. Retrieved 23 March 2010.
  3. 1 2 3 Administrator. "The Black Star Project - About". www.blackstarproject.org. Retrieved 2017-10-17.
  4. ↑ "Chicago 2016 Olympics: Chicago's children deserve Olympian effort, too". tribunedigital-chicagotribune. Retrieved 2017-11-21.
  5. ↑ "Newsviews: The Black Star Project (1)". ABC7 Chicago. 2015-06-21. Retrieved 2017-10-17.
  6. ↑ "Summon 2.0". uichicago.summon.serialssolutions.com. Retrieved 2017-10-16.
  7. ↑ "The Black Star Project". Open Society Foundations. Retrieved 2017-11-30.
  8. ↑ "Fourth Annual Mass Black Male Graduation". Retrieved 2017-10-17.
  9. 1 2 "Black Star Project Recruiting 500 Tutors For "Saturday University"". Retrieved 2017-12-12.
  10. ↑ "Black Star Project's Holiday Saturday University Makes Impact". Retrieved 2017-12-12.
  11. ↑ Molnar, Michele. "Million Father March: Dads To Take Kids to First Day of School". Education Week - K-12 Parents and the Public. Retrieved 2017-11-02.
  12. ↑ "Striving to get fathers involved". tribunedigital-chicagotribune. Retrieved 2017-11-07.
  13. ↑ Administrator. "The Black Star Project - Father's Club". www.blackstarproject.org. Retrieved 2017-11-20.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.