Otis Wilson Charitable Association

The association has an after school program serving 150 children. Activities include: basketball, football, track, and personal training. These programs also involve workshops stressing nutrition, personal hygiene, conflict intervention, and community. By partnering with the illinois violence prevention agency, we have added an emphasis on violence prevention. Our instructors help youth develope effective negotiating, conflict resolution, and anger management skills. They stress empathy and respect for all people and their values. Fitness tests are administered three times throughout the year. By mid year about 25% of females and 30% of males improved thier test results. By the end of the year, around 32% of females and 40% of males completed their fitness tests quicker than their mid year results.

The tackling literacy program was implemented to create an effective means for imporving the literacy skill of elementary school students who continued to struggle with developing the basic and advanced reading skills needed to excel in school and life. The program also provides a means to expose youth to safe and creative alternatives to spending their time in order to deter them from engaging in violent activities. The fundamental core components of litearcy skill building, which indclude: phonics, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and assesment/evaluation, are all addressed in this program. In order to properly monitor the growth of stundent participants, three separate assessments were given during the course of the program. For the mid-point assesment, there was an average growth of 60% among all participants with respect to being able to read vocabulary work lists from the first game. By the end, all students demonstrated a measure of growth in their overall reading ability.

Contributions made to other organizations and funds to help people with tuition