Every month The Black Star Project’s Fathers Club takes children to museums, zoos, conservatories, libraries, bookstores, amusement parks and other places where children can be educated, enlightened, entertained, and where men nurture and bond with their children or with children for whom they care.  Men in the Fathers Club pledge to be committed and engaged with their children throughout the year.

“Urban college-bound minority high school students in Chicago have high educational ambitions, but many lack the college-planning information they need to make informed choices on how to realize these ambitions,” says a recent study by ACT, Inc. with cooperation from the Council of Great City Schools.  “These students are ambitious and highly motivated” said Richard Noeth, ACT’s director of policy research and co-author of the study, “but many didn’t receive the help they needed, when they needed it, to adequately prepare for college.”

The Black Star Project's Student Motivation and Mentoring Program, created in 1996, follows a classroom-mentoring program model that strives to:

• Inspire and motivate students to do well in school

• Expose students to various college and career options

• Encourage students towards healthy and positive lives

• Help students to create viable life plans and make good decisions

The Toyota/Black Star Parent University was created to address a long-standing challenge – parents who need additional support to build stronger families and ensure the proper education of their children.  The Parent University, designed for Chicago public school parents, is available to all parents throughout Chicago. Classes, which are also available in Spanish, are held in schools, community centers, libraries, churches, park districts and other parent-friendly locations.