Community Renewal Society

Catalyst Chicago recently launched a resource center on educating African-American boys. The web page is organized to encourage members of the community to get involved and learn more about the issue Catalyst investigated in June 2009. In that issue Catalyst reported that on virtually every measure of educational success, African-American male students trail behind their peers in Chicago Public Schools. Black boys score lowest on achievement tests, are more likely than their peers to drop out of high school and are less likely to make it to college.

The Reaching Black Boys resource center shares the stories and reports on the challenges facing black boys, possible solutions and research on the issue. The center features a local resource directory where you can add information about programs, PDFs of the investigations and video clips from the Reaching Black Boys Symposium, featuring professor Pedro Noguero and local leaders.

The resource center project grew out of the April 2010 Reaching Black Boys Symposium on black male achievement that was organized by Catalyst, Golden Apple Foundation, MAGIC of Woodlawn, National-Louis University and Urban Prep Academy for Young Men.

The Resource Center was created, in part, with contributions from the Lloyd A. Fry Foundation and the Pierce Family Foundation.

Visit the Reaching Black Boys Resource Center online