Honoring Our History, Celebrating Our Future

At CYC, we love celebrating our vibrant cultures and outstanding achievements! Our recent events offered children opportunities to showcase their artistic talents, take pride in their roots, and express the boundless potential that lives within them. Caring at CYC means supporting each child’s development in a holistic way, cherishing their identities and nurturing their self-confidence.  

Our Black History Month Celebration at the Rebecca K. Crown Center was one to remember! The night was filled with fun, exciting, and educational performances from each age group. From original rap songs to choreographed dances, we honored the trailblazers who paved the way for progress.

To wrap the night, Crown staff recognized their Stars of the Month! Each month, the lead staff member for each age group acknowledges one child who has an appetite for knowledge, shows kindness to others, and is always engaged in programming. We loved getting an extra chance to appreciate their hard work and cheer on their successes. Check out our stars shining bright!

At our Perspectives Family Game Night, we brought together families for a chance to relax, laugh, and celebrate Black Pop-Culture. We spent the event playing fun games like Urban Trivia, which brought tons of laughter and great, nostalgic stories! CYC is grateful for events where we can get to know each other better and connect. 

Our Holden and Deneen Step teams shook the stage with some incredible performances! Children learned step routines from local Divine 9 fraternity and sorority members, and discovered the impact each Black Greek-letter Organization has had on higher-education and communities at large. These showcases exhibited the art and teamwork of stepping, while highlighting that Black History and Culture is multi-faceted and powerful!

By celebrating Black joy, creativity, and culture throughout the year, we encourage feelings of pride, strength, and empowerment. Black History is not just a chapter in a textbook; it's a living, breathing narrative that shapes the present and future. Celebrations like these create opportunities for children to explore and embrace their identities, gain confidence, and amplify their voices through creative expression. These events are a reminder to CYC children that they are a special part of history and have the power to build any future they dream of!  

Want to stay up to date with CYC programming and how we continue to celebrate our cultures throughout the year? Follow us on our social media pages! 

The Power of Words

CYC’s staff members are incredibly talented and have a wide range of impact on the people around them. Clarence Hogan, Center Director at CYC-Epstein, is a wonderful example. Through CYC programming, open mic events, presenting at conferences, and comedy shows, he uses his natural storytelling abilities to uplift those around him. He encourages others to understand all the ways stories influence and change lives. 

 On top of his years as a public speaker, he has done consulting for after school programming and often leads workshops! Because of his expertise, he was asked to represent CYC as a presenter at the Best of Out-of-School-Time (BOOST) Conference for the third time this February. This year, his presentation titled “Storytelling for a Cause” discusses how to use everyday occurrences to connect people with an organization’s mission. Clarence explains, “The objective of this workshop is to teach participants how to catch, craft, and communicate”. In a major part of his talk, he shares a quote from Plato that pushes listeners to recognize the scope and importance of this skill, “Those who tell stories rule society.” He notes that stories can be used in endless ways- they can preserve tradition, rewrite history, educate, or entertain. Whether they are telling their own story or speaking about an organization’s mission, Mr. Clarence’s workshops help others to intentionally craft stories to keep in control of their own narratives.  

BOOST Conference 2022

Clarence Hogan and Steven Willis represent CYC in a live podcast event “Kwestions & KoolAide with Kids”

 At CYC, he encourages children to share their experiences in many ways. Each day after school, they come to the Center and have Circle Time, which offers a safe space to talk about their day. Clarence actively listens to children while they express their emotions- building social emotional skills, trust, and community within their peer groups. During club activities like podcasting, entrepreneurship, or journaling, he helps kids flex their creative writing muscles while having a blast! Pathways to new passions, hobbies, and potential careers can open as they discover the power of words. Fostering a love of storytelling in children today helps support a lifetime of healthy communication skills and building connections! 

After assisting with a business plan and helping them practice public speaking, Clarence hosts 4 CYC entrepreneurs at his community storytelling event.

Clarence offers his skills to the broader Chicagoland community too. His business Sonny Speaks offers public events like Chew the Fat, The Power of Storytelling, West Side Stories, and Englewood Speaks that bring people together through stories. These open mics give neighbors of all writing and public speaking abilities a platform to share their personal experiences. Topics often encompass themes that can be tough to talk about like family dynamics and toxic masculinity. On the flip side, Clarence ensures that there’s a time to share positive stories about subjects like Black love, food, and much more. By creating spaces for others to be heard, connect, and find support, Clarence has an incredible impact on the city, his neighbors and CYC children and families. 

Storytelling is an art, not a science. The main idea that Clarence hopes people take away from his teachings is to listen intentionally. Whether he’s presenting at BOOST, running CYC programming, or hosting events, he encourages everyone to find joy in listening to and celebrating others’ stories. You never know who needs to be heard or what you might need to hear. We are incredibly grateful and lucky to have someone as supportive, passionate, and considerate as Clarence on our team. Whether a neighbor, a peer, or a CYC child, Clarence helps people find their voice and uplift their story.  

To read more about CYC’s incredible staff, you can sign up for our newsletter below. To attend a Sonny Speaks community event, click here to visit sonnyspeaks.com!

Mini Meteorologists

Ms. Tonette is the Head Early Learning Teacher at CYC-Sidney Epstein. When she’s not in class with her 19 students, she’s planning super fun and engaging lessons to get them kindergarten ready! This winter, as temperatures dropped below zero outside, she noticed many children asking why it was so cold. She saw this as a great opportunity to bring children’s curiosities into the classroom. 

“At first, it was a math lesson, actually.” said Ms. Tonette, “We measured the differences between temperatures to better understand cold weather.”  Soon after they started to investigate temperature, the little super sleuths began to ask many more questions. Students wanted to understand ideas like why some snow is fluffy or slushy, or why the sidewalk gets icy. What was designed to be a real-word math exercise quickly sprouted an interest in science, and so the Weather Center was born! What’s great is that they can continue their explorations through every season. 

Ms. Tonette next to the Weather Center Board she created!

Children arrive to class each morning excited to share what they noticed outside. The small scientists report their sightings of elements like clouds, fog, rain, or sunshine. Ms. Tonette writes their observations on the Weather Center board as she teaches her students about each condition they record. At the end of each lesson, the children take turns being the mini meteorologist of the day! This fantastic forecaster reads the charts back to the rest of the students as they give the official class weather report.  

Class meteorologist of the day!

Ms. Tonette shared about how the children continue to grow each day, “There are a few students that are becoming curious about larger topics like how raindrops and the sun make rainbows- they are all so smart!”  

Lessons about the weather are an easy, accessible way to continue exploring both inside and outside of the classroom. Offering engaging, real-world experiences like the Weather Center helps CYC children to grow as learners. Each Center and Site has incredible learning moments like these, and we’d love to continue to share them with you. Add your email to the form below and subscribe to the CYC newsletter so you can keep up with the fun! 

Sparking Excitement for Science!

When you think of science class, you probably remember how much fun you had doing hands-on experiments! Opportunities to explore are what can spark passion in topics like electricity and technology. Our Centers have Maker’s Labs where Specialists like Lex can create STEAM programs that offer children space to ask questions and investigate. One of our favorite parts about spending time in our Maker’s Labs is seeing kids build confidence in their new skills when they get a light or fan to work all on their own! 

Each group of young engineers has their own circuit projects that they are building. The youngest kids (6-8) are working on simple projects with copper tape, a cell battery, and light to make light up Valentine’s cards for their parents. As they learn more, they’ll begin making other cool projects like origami lightning bugs! Middle & high schoolers have learned many of the principles of electricity and are starting to put them into practice during their experiments. They are currently working their way up to more complex systems during each session and are eager to keep learning!  

Each day children arrive at our Centers excited to dive right into their lesson. Lex starts the kids off with a labeled, wired battery pack, and the goal is to correctly connect a small motor fan or lightbulb and power it up. Lex says that they like to give their classes independent experiments like this, because the kids see it as a puzzle game. During this exercise, Lex offers some guidance, but often encourages their class to keep trying certain ideas on their own instead of giving direct answers.  

This “hands-off” style of teaching really works! Each child’s confidence soars as the bulbs light up and the fans start turning. “I don’t think people realize how fun and easy electricity is to learn about and work with!” Lex says children often recall and retain much more of their learning when they independently problem-solve. With each circuit completed, the excitement to take on the next challenge grows. 

The CYC Maker’s Labs are incredibly special because they help children recognize that breaking something or making a mistake is just another step towards understanding and solving a problem. With encouragement from mentors like Lex, kids know they can tackle any topic they want! CYC spaces and programming are full of these daily "a-ha" moments. When children feel free to tinker with things like technology, they can continue to uncover new possibilities.  

Want to hear about more “light bulb” moments and all things CYC? Sign up below and subscribe to our newsletter! 

Celebrating Dr. King's Legacy

As Black History Month begins, we take time to acknowledge and reflect on the contributions and impact members of the Black communities across the African Diaspora have had on our city, country, and the world. With our recent celebrations of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at our Centers, we encouraged children to understand how influential figures, events, and historical movements continue to shape how we live today.  

At CYC-Sidney Epstein, children spent the afternoon exploring Dr. King’s legacy and how he had a lasting impact on the US, Chicago, and specifically North Lawndale. The kids participated in a variety of activities that offered opportunities to learn and think about many aspects of Dr. King’s life and work. Each activity station encouraged children to build connections to Dr. King’s work and see the effects of historic events on our present lives. Stations ranged from creative writing, to trivia, to sketching self-portraits showing how they hope to have a positive impact on the world. Teens who made these drawings said they loved sketching themselves and visualizing how one person can shift history. At CYC, we understand the importance of inclusive representation for children. Continuing to learn about and uplift the voices and experiences of those who came before them helps each child envision all the bright paths they can choose for their own lives. 

Check out some of CYC kids’ creative work!

Thank you to McDonald’s for supporting this event, and making sure we had happy bellies filled with happy meals.

As we remember Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we reflect on how CYC and North Lawndale are connected to his legacy. In 1966, Dr. King moved to North Lawndale to draw attention to discriminatory housing issues such as poor living conditions, overpriced rent, redlining, and other inequitable housing practices that existed in many Chicago Neighborhoods. He joined with local organizations to launch The Chicago Freedom Movement – leading marches, protests, and discussions on how to organize against unjust treatment. As his time in Chicago continued, he also demanded that the mayor address other major concerns like school desegregation, better wages, and teaching black history all year. Dr. King’s work in North Lawndale and his creation of The Chicago Freedom Movement are often credited for the passing of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which made it “illegal to restrict access to housing on the basis of race, religion, sex, or national origin.” 

In 1968, Dr. King was tragically assassinated. His death caused unrest in Chicago and cities across the country. From April 5-7, Chicago endured looting and rioting that caused damage throughout city neighborhoods, including North Lawndale. During this time, many families were displaced or didn’t feel safe in their own homes. To support our neighbors, the Sidney Epstein Center, known then as ABC Polk, opened its doors and stayed open for nearly four days to ensure local families had somewhere to go. Cots, blankets, and food were provided to anyone who might need them. To make sure children and teens were out of harm's way, staff started a basketball game that ended up lasting three straight days to encourage kids to stay safe during this time of uncertainty. 

Today CYC continues to be hub for joy, safety, and connection within communities. We offer a place for children to explore the past, make the most of the present, and envision what lies ahead in their futures. When we encourage children to reflect on Black History, we strengthen connections to culture and remind them that they too have the power to make history each day. Black History is more than just a month. Like all world history, it should be celebrated all year long!   

Bundled Up with Joy

As the days get colder, CYC wants to be sure children stay warm while they ice skate, build snowmen, and have snowball fights with their friends! If there’s anything we know about the wintertime, it's that busy, growing children need many layers to brave the cold Chicago temperatures. We are so grateful to have community partners, like Old Navy and the Reva and David Logan Foundation, to ensure CYC families have the winter gear they need.

Local Old Navy locations joined us to sponsor holiday cheer for several CYC families. Old Navy donated gifts and clothing for TEN families at CYC-Sherman School of Excellence. Each family member received gifts from their wish list along with new and stylish clothes. We loved seeing the joy and smiles from families while helping them pile their goodies into their cars!

Through our partnership with the Reva and David Logan Foundation, three of our Centers’ Early Learning Programs received donations of winter gear. CYC-Epstein, CYC-Crown, and CYC-Gautreaux hosted distribution days and provided clothing for over 200 children and their families. This included things like: winter coats, hats, gloves, boots, sweaters, thermal gear, neck warmers, and warm socks. Each family received clothes and shoes that fit just right and will help them stay warm from head-to-toe this winter!

Our deepest gratitude goes out to Old Navy and the Reva and David Logan Foundation for their support of CYC children and families this season. This thoughtful generosity assists CYC in our mission to holistically support children of all ages and their families.

Thank you to everyone who has supported CYC this winter. Whether you have volunteered, donated funds to support our programs, or re-shared our posts on social media, you have helped CYC continue to provide access to valuable resources for the children, families and communities we serve. If this story inspired you - click here to donate or here to find out ways to get involved!