The Young People’s Project (YPP) is an outgrowth of the Algebra Project, “a national mathematics literacy effort aimed at helping low income students and students of color successfully acquire mathematical skills that are a prerequisite for a college preparatory mathematics sequence in high school and full citizenship in today’s technological society.” YPP joins the Algebra Project in its belief that all the children who live in the country are children of the country and that they have the right to a high quality public school education.
Founded in 1996 by Algebra Project graduates, YPP is a nonprofit organization with established sites in Jackson, MS, Chicago, IL, Cambridge and Boston, MA, and developing programs in Petersburg, VA, Miami, FL, Atlanta, GA, New Orleans, LA, Mansfield, OH, Hamilton College and the University of Michigan. As the founding members of YPP have moved from middle to high school to college, their development and the subsequent development of the young people they’ve worked with, has formed the basis for the evolution into a truly youth driven organization.
It is the mission of YPP to use Math Literacy as a tool to develop young leaders and organizers who radically change the quality of education and life in their communities so that all children have the opportunity to reach their full human potential.
| | 400 High School and College students are trained and employed to do math literacy work on an annual basis.
5000 elementary students, family and community members participate in math literacy workshops, events and initiatives annually.
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Peer to Peer Learning - Since 1995, YPP has been preparing young people to teach each other mathematics.
Local Program Models – Math Literacy Worker Training, Math Literacy Workshops and Outreach, Community Events for Math Literacy
Local Initiatives – At the local level YPP has piloted initiatives or implemented programs that have applied peer to peer learning to reading and writing, documentation, media and technology. Currently we’re implementing an initiative in New Orleans and Atlanta (New Roots) which incorporates reading, writing and media literacy and a program in Chicago (Building Demand) which combines research, documentation and analysis. | |
Schools, Churches, Community Organizations, Community Centers, Parks | |
Young people need to prepare themselves and each other to become productive citizens of this country and the world. Technological Innovation, Globalization and Climate Change are the dominant societal forces that are determining the prerequisites for participation in a global society. | |
YPP has developed a pipeline for young people to invest in themselves, each other and their communities, and platforms to harness the power of their culture to promote and value what is and will be required for individual and community success and well being, and to support, challenge and demand that institutions and systems, created to serve their families and communities, function effectively. |
Building Demand for Math Literacy!
At each site YPP conducts on going training and development of all of its current and incoming Math Literacy Workers. This training is supported a the national level by a multi-year grant from the National Science Foundation - Division of Informal Math and Science Learning and a cohort of National YPP and AP trainers.
As mentioned above, YPP emerged out of a rich historical and cultural legacy that stems from the Civil Rights Movement. The ideal of grass roots participation in community empowerment. It is in this vein that the YPP training can be viewed as a type of meeting, a setting in which knowledge and skills are imparted to the participants, and perhaps more importantly, a setting that enables participants to access and express their individual and collective leadership.
Although YPP has various levels of training – for high school students, college students, and for trainers (in development) – the essential goal of each is the same, that participants will leave the training with a deeper sense of the way in which their personal and e collective gifts can be used to enhance learning for others and improve the quality of public education for all youth.
At each site, teams of high school math literacy workers (MLWs), lead by a college math literacy worker (CMLW), conduct workshops for students in grades K-8. These workshops take place at various outreach sites, comprised of afterschool programs, churches and community centers. Workshops are organized around math-based games and collective experiences, and emphasize individual reflection, small group work, teamwork and discussion. The implementation of these workshops, along with community events, are central to the growth of math literacy workers, supporting their academic and social development, and their emerging identity as catalysts for helping family community members to understand that success in math is important and attainable for all children.
YPP seeks to create a space within the neighborhoods we work for young people, their parents and community members to come together and learn mathematics. By going into their communities and facilitating workshop and events, high school students have an opportunity to share their skills with their peers and community members. As a result, young people are engaged in a cycle of learning which supports their personal development while involving them in a wealth of experiences that broadens their perspective on how they can impact their community. We see this as the catalyst to developing a cycle in which MLWs work to build a critical mass of young people and parents in their communities who take responsibility for their education and work to insure that younger community members have the drive, skills and work habits that will allow them to develop to their full potential.
YPP has recently partner with fellow NSF grantee MAPPS (Math And Parent Partnerships) to offer a unique series of Family Math Nights, with parents and their children. These math nights have assisted YPP in helping to bridge the divide between school and home, and empowered both parents and children to open up a conversation in and about the language of mathematics.
