Latest News
- The Depression in the Teen Labor Market in Illinois in Recent Years Report
- High School Dropouts in Chicago and Illinois and Their Persistence Labor Market Problems
- President Obama’s American Jobs Act Pathways Back to Work Hearing
- Catalyst Chicago: Putting dropouts back on track using the power of film
- The State Journal Register: Report: Illinois dropouts earn less, cost state more
- Rockford Register Star: Report: Illinois dropouts earn less, cost state more
- Gapers Block: Preckwinkle and Brizard to Speak at Forum on Dropouts
- Reuters: Illinois study cites cost of high school dropouts
- Chicago Sun Times: We All Pay Price for Dropout Rate
- Crain's: Report details staggering cost of highschool dropouts
- Chicago Tribune: Report: Illinois high school dropouts earn less, cost state more, spend more time in jail
- Chicago Tribune: Study Details Societal Ramifications for High School Dropouts
- Chicago Sun Times: If You Drop out of School, Prepare for Miserable Life
- Chicago Tribune: The Terrible Cost of Dropping Out
What is Freedom?
“Rondell Freeman, II, a student at Prologue Early College HS won Frederick Douglas Family Foundation’s ‘What is Freedom’ Video Challenge with this Public Service Announcement that calls for action against human trafficking and other forms of modern day slavery. Please visit www.fdff.org/100days to learn more.”
YS3 Recruitment Video
The Youth Scholars, Skills, and Service Program (YS3) has been serving Chicago's foster care youth who are seeking to return to school and obtain a high school diploma or GED since 1999. The program is available at 17 community based alternative schools throughout Chicago. This video provides more information about each program site. You can also visit www.asnchicago.org/ys3 for a map and contact information for each site. Students interested in enrolling must be current, active, foster care youth and apply to the school they are interested in.
Catalyst Chicago: Putting dropouts back on track using the power of film
For Angeline White, a 2011 graduate of Prologue Early College High School in Chicago, the opportunity to direct a film about being homeless changed her life.
The film, titled “Home Sweet Home,” punched her ticket to the National Film Festival for Talented Youth, held in Seattle in April. Angeline worked on the film through the Community TV Network (CTVN), a non-profit that works with former out-of-school youth to teach them to imagine themselves as smart, capable and successful individuals with the ability to tell powerful stories.
Ex-dropouts at Chicago Public Schools Win Honors in Film Fest
Chicago Sun Times - May 31st, 2012.
Like many of the teens behind the films in this year’s 5th Chicago Youth Community Film Festival, 19-year-old Miles Johnson has struggled all his life.
“I grew up without a mom. She left me when I was 3, and my father, well, he wasn’t there. He was in the streets,” the Englewood youth said.
Today, Johnson and some of his peers — Chicago Public School dropouts who found their way back through the Alternative Schools Network (ASN) — are using film to tell their stories of struggle and redemption.
Twelve winners in the film fest — sponsored by ASN and the Chicago Film Office — will be screened Thursday at the Chicago Cultural Center.
“These are kids who didn’t do well in the public schools, or were asked to leave, and were on the streets before deciding they wanted an education,” said Jack Wuest of ASN, which operates 23 schools serving 3,500 students citywide. “They share in their films about the issues they live and face every day.”
Johnson, who dropped out in 2010, was raised by his grandmother. He ran with the wrong crowd, had a brush with the law and decided to turn his life around. He graduates next month and plans to go to Harold Washington College.
“Music and Peace,” the short film Johnson directed with another student, Stephanie Lewis, was named winner of the Global Filmmaking Challenge sponsored by Facets Multimedia and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
“It’s about a group of people at a house party, playing two different kinds of music, and it comes to a point where they have to come together and compromise,” he said. “It’s about music and peace, but it’s about life.”