CURL in partnership with the Chicago Freedom School conducted an evaluation of the Chicago Freedom School's inaugural 6-week summer institute for Chicago youth during the summer of 2007. The CFS summer institute was a six-week program, where youth (“Freedom Fellows”) participated in courses that made connections between their own interests and social justice issues. The summer institute was designed to allow the Freedom Fellows to have an opportunity to ask questions about their lives, to see the connection between the means and the ends of creating change, and to develop as agents of social change.

Girl World, a program within Alternatives Inc in the neighborhood of Uptown on Chicago’s North Side, provides gender specific and age appropriate programming for girls and young women ages 10 to 18. Program activities focus on increasing self-esteem and self-efficacy, encouraging teamwork and social justice awareness, and developing leaders. In partnership with CURL, Girl World designed and implemented Participatory Research asking the question “How do young African American women feel about their hair and what influences them to feel that way?” They reviewed literature, collected data through observations, interviews and photos and analyzed data. Issues of self esteem, self perception, cultural norms, racism and the creation of beauty images were all confronted as part of this project.