Rescued by Books: Fostering Teen Literacy in Low-Income Communities

Inmates who get correctional education are less likely to become repeat offenders, but education costs money. An organization is funding educational opportunities for prisoners in various cities in the U.S. to improve their reentry into society.

Arts education programs in the United States are subjected to cutting for maintaining tight school budgets. Technology sectors in Seattle seek professionals who have been trained in problem solving skills and innovative idea generation. In response, Seattle Public Schools and the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture collaborate to promote equity in students’ access to the arts.

Media and public scrutiny as well as the experience of being detained can worsen the outlook for juvenile offenders. Increasing court involvement, keeping the media at bay, and having a juvenile facility can help the circumstances.

For youth from low-income or disadvantaged families, the joy of participating in sports activities is often unobtainable, due to the costs of equipment, membership, and even cultural barriers. Street Games is a charity working to provide access to sport, especially for young women, through a personalized, accessible approach that includes hosting games in accessible public areas such as parks in low-income neighborhoods.

For the past four years, several rural Colorado school districts have experimented with alternative forms of evaluation that don't rely solely on the results of educational testing. Now, a proposed bill, with wide support, would provide financial and logistical support to these pilots.

Students in the Mineola school district had a head start when schools around the country switched to online classes as a result of the coronavirus? Since 2017, students as young as kindergarteners have been learning to code, while older students have learned to take advantage of opportunities like a fabrication lab to design, produce and sell what they develop, among other offerings. But the challenges educators and administrators face are balancing how much tech to implement in the classroom, and how much is too much.

Tennessee Reconnect, which started as a small-scale "mentorship and financial support program", has now been adopted and expanded throughout the state as a way to help adults start or continue higher education. Now in its second year, the program matches applicants with "navigators," adult mentors who understand the specific student's financial and social challenges and helps them navigate the process every step of the way. The program also provides funding to students to pay for coursework and is now looking to expand its operations to jails and prisons.

The South Central Leadership Academy was started in Los Angeles by a college student who believes that gun violence survivors like him should lead the community response in finding solutions to violence. Its first year of paying more than a dozen student survivors to learn community organizing skills succeeded in attracting funding to expand to Nashville, Baltimore, and Atlanta. COVID-19 put the latter two expansions on hold, but LA and Nashville continued with well-attended classes learning remotely. Founder Marco Vargas hopes to turn this startup into a national network of youth leadership academies.

Depuis le début de la crise sanitaire, des centaines de milliers d'enfants auraient été « perdus » par leurs enseignants, d’après le ministre de l’Éducation. Malgré le manque d’équipements informatiques ou les difficultés des élèves à travailler à la maison, des professeurs, associations et bénévoles sont en partie parvenus à maintenir le lien.

Lawrence Hall’s transitional housing in Chicago is a safe space for members of the LGBTQ+ community in the foster care system to live and receive wraparound support while they get ready for the next step in their lives, whatever that may be. Many of the staff also identify as LGBTQ+ and help them learn to cook, keep a job, or answer questions about things like hormone therapy and gender-affirming care.