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Join Cardinal Blase Cupich, Father Michael Pfleger, and the Faith Community of Saint Sabina for their annual End of School Year Summer Peace March!!! Black Star Project will be in attendance. 25,000 Chicagoans might march for peace through the southside of Chicago. You should be one of them.
Friday, June 16, 2017
7:00 pm
St. Sabina Church
78th Place and Throop
Chicago, Illinois
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Calling All Black Star Project Members and Those Who Want to Be Members!
To Join
The Black Star Project
for
Major League Baseball
Tuesday, June 13, 2017
7:10 pm
See the
The Chicago White Sox
vs.
Baltimore Orioles
Guaranteed Rate Field
333 West 35th Street
(Members Only Event)
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You Must RSVP for This Opportunity. Please call
773.285.9600 to RSVP, or for more information about this game. Tickets will be available on a first come/call-first served basis to Black Star members.
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These Great Community Partners
are promoting
Neighborhood Heroes:
Making A Difference
across the Chicago Region
We are proud. We are committed. We can make a difference.
We all have the potential to make a difference where we live. That is what Neighborhood Heroes is all about. When we invest our time, get to know our neighbors and work together, we are creating stronger neighborhoods.
Some Neighborhood Heroes! Top left, Sister Therese O'Sullivan, Chicago's Woodlawn Neighborhood; top right, Hilary Verhaeghe, Chicago's Loop Neighborhood; bottom left, Destiny Watson, Flossmour, Illinois; and bottom right, William Hill, Chicago's Woodlawn Neighborhood.
Every act - no matter how big or small - can make a difference. When we care about each other and make a commitment to our block our community thrives. That is why NBC Chicago,
Click Here to "Take The Pledge" to Improve Our Neighborhoods and Become a Neighborhood Hero
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End the humiliating practice of "lunch shaming"
"No child should ever be subjected to cruel and humiliating lunch shaming practices occurring in schools across the country. Pass the Anti-Lunch Shaming Act now."
It's the humiliating practice of "lunch shaming" - school policies that publicly single out poor students in an effort to force parents to pay lunch bills - and it's happening in school cafeterias across the country. We cannot count on the cruel and heartless Trump-DeVos administration to protect children at our schools, but recent action in Congress could stop this appalling practice once and for all.
Progressive champion Rep. Rosa DeLauro has introduced legislation with her colleagues in both the House and Senate to end lunch shaming and ensure all children have access to a meal, regardless of their parents' ability to pay. We must pressure Congress to make this a priority and pass this bill before any more children are subjected to this deplorable practice.
News stories in the last few months detail young children - many who have language barrier issues - being shamefully singled out in school in front of their peers and forced to undergo public humiliation because of an unpaid lunch debt owed to the school.1 These students have absolutely no control over their families' finances, yet school administrators are abusing these children because of their parents' inability to pay.
A recent study from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) found that nearly half of all school districts in the country practice some form of lunch shaming.2 And while some states like New Mexico have taken local action to stop these practices, federal law currently does not prohibit schools from stigmatizing students in this way, allowing schools to continue shaming children for no fault of their own.3
Specifically, the Anti-Lunch Shaming Act would:4
- Prohibit schools from stigmatizing children with hand stamps, wristbands or other public means;
- Prevent schools from forcing children to perform chores in order to receive a meal;
- Stop lunch workers from disposing of a meal after it's been served to a child; and
- Require all communications regarding lunch bills be directed to parents or guardians instead of children.
The USDA has given states until July to establish policies for dealing with unpaid school lunch debt, but its guidance does not prohibit these shaming practices. We must act now to ensure Congress establishes a nationwide standard to prevent lunch shaming for good and never allow another child to be humiliated again.
Click Here to Sign a Petition to Congress to End "Lunch Shaming".
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"If you don't understand White supremacy/racism, everything that you do understand will only confuse you."
-- Neely Fuller, Jr.
Biblical & Theological Frameworks for
Dismantling Racism
featuring
Dr. Reggie Williams
Professor of Christian Ethics
McCormick Theological Seminary
and
Rev. Dr. Steed Davidson
Professor of the Old Testament
McCormick Theological Seminary
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Sunday, June 11, 2017
1:00 pm to 3:00 pm
Hartzell Memorial United
Methodist Church
3330 South King Drive
Chicago, Illinois
Please call 312.842.5957 for more information
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Real Men Cook
Father's Day Event
Sunday, June 18, 2017
Please call 773.412.1190 for more information on Real Men Cook at one of the 8 cooking sites. Or you may visit any of the above sites including Mosque Maryam, 7351 S. Stony Island, Chicago, with Student Minister Jeffrey Muhammad, on Sunday, June 18, 2017.
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Summer Jobs for Chicago Youth
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Data Exclusive: 75 Percent of Black California Boys Don't Meet State Reading Standards
Percentage of Students Who Met California State Reading Standards
African American Boys - 24%
African American Girls - 38%
Hispanic-Latino Boys - 32%
Hispanic-Latina Girls - 42%
Asian Boys - 71%
Asian Girls - 80%
White Boys - 59%
White Girls - 70%
Source: California Department of Education, results of 2016 state English tests.
Three of four African-American boys in California classrooms failed to meet reading and writing standards on the most recent round of testing, according to data obtained from the state Department of Education and analyzed by CALmatters.
More than half of black boys scored in the lowest category on the English portion of the test, trailing their female counterparts. The disparity reflects a stubbornly persistent gender gap in reading and writing scores that stretches across ethnic groups.
The data provide a unique glimpse of how gender interacts with race and class in mastery of basic reading, writing and listening skills tested on state exams. While California publishes separate figures on the performance of various ethnic and economic groups, it does not make public a more detailed breakdown of how boys and girls are performing within those groups. State officials say they do not sort the data that way because of complexity, cost and time constraints.
"I wouldn't put this in the same category of severity or concern as other achievement gaps," said Tom Loveless, an education researcher for the Brookings Institution, a public policy think tank in Washington, D.C. "But there needs to be greater awareness of this."
The gap spans all grade levels. Boys in high school score better than those in grade school, but girls outperform them by consistent margins at every age. And a higher family income does not appear to even things out.
The gap is not unique to California. The phenomenon is nevertheless worrisome because it may compound other educational disparities California has attempted to close for decades, without success.
"If boys don't read as well as girls, and if that persists all the way through K-12, it means when you reach certain thresholds like college, it places the males at a disadvantage," says Loveless. "The ability to read well has a lot to do with the ability to get into college and the ability to do well while you're in college."
Certainly scores aren't the only educational area in which black boys trail their peers. African-American boys are more likely to be suspended and drop out of school than other demographic groups, in California and elsewhere.
But the reading data is sobering. As early as fourth grade, for example, nearly 80 percent of black boys failed to meet state reading standards. Of all ethnic groups for which the state collects data, black boys trailed black girls by the widest margin.
"Part of this may be structural, in having texts that aren't relevant to the experiences and legacy of African-American boys," said Chris Chatmon, founding executive director of the African-American Male Achievement program at the Oakland Unified School District. "When a lot of the curriculum you have access to isn't familiar, or doesn't acknowledge your past or your present, you have a tendency not to be engaged with it or want to read it."
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While the state makes it relatively easy for parents to look up the test scores of African-Americans at local schools, the data is not broken down by gender. So it may be difficult to identify schools where black boys are performing well, as well as schools that are struggling.
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Press Release
Four Generations of Black Males
Celebrate 2017 Graduations
Black Kindergarten, Elementary, High School and College Graduates Honored for Accomplishments and Encouraged to Help Rebuild Community
Chicago, Illinois -- 250 young Black male graduates from across Chicago and the Midwest will participate in the 4nd Annual Mass Black Male Graduation and Transition to Manhood Ceremony featuring nationally acclaimed WVON Radio Host Maze Jackson and Charles Thomas as keynote speakers. The ceremony will begin with a procession of 50 local Black elders-from business, law, media, government, medicine, education and religion-leading elementary school, high school and college graduates into the auditorium behind African drummers.
This ceremonial event, sponsored by The Black Star Project, will take place at Metropolitan Apostolic Community Church (4100 South King Drive in Chicago, Illinois) on Saturday, June 24, 2017 from 10:30 am until 12:30 pm. The public is invited to this free event.
This ceremony is designed to both honor the graduates for their academic accomplishments and to show them what is possible with hard work and perseverance. After the ceremony, graduates will have the opportunity to network and dialogue with a host of distinguished, successful elders, as well as other community leaders.
Phillip Jackson, Executive Director of The Black Star Project, says, "Once, our keynote speaker, Hip Hop Artist Lupe Fiasco, gave each of the graduates $100 to honor their accomplishments. While there is no guarantee that such a generous gift will be bestowed again, good things happen for those who show up in life!"
Young men will wear the representative cap and gown from their home elementary, high school or college. The recent graduates will focus on creating life plans, building their communities and becoming good role models for younger Black boys. One thousand family members, friends and supporters of education are expected to attend this historic occasion.
If you know of a young Black male kindergarten, elementary, high school or college graduate who wants to participate in this once-in-a-lifetime ceremony, please have them call 773.285.9600 or email blackstar1000@ameritech.net to accept their place among our distinguished graduates.
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