A Generation of Hope: Portraits and Stories to Commemorate Th 10th Anniversay of By the Hand Club for Kids

By The Hand is an after-school program with an emphasis on academics and a commitment to nurturing the whole child-mind, body and soul. Founded in Cabrini-Green and located strategically throughout some of Chicago's most impoverished inner-city communities, where overcrowded and underfunded schools abound, By The Hand is filling a special need and with great success. Kids are saying no to drugs, gang violence and teenage pregnancy. They are rejecting illiteracy and poverty as a way of life. Instead, they are developing into honor roll students and changing the trajectory of their lives. To celebrate the 10-year anniversary of By The Hand, our kids participated in a Book Learning Project that was designed to help kids develop their communication skills.During the project, they learned from professional writers, workshops, tutors and plenty of practice writing stories. Children who joined By The Hand during one of the 10 years tell their story about what By The Hand means to them and how they first joined The Club. The culmination of the project resulted in a compilation of 89 stories. Entitled A Generation of Hope, the book is a tribute to the transforming power of love; human and divine.