The I Project

The Education Emancipation campaign is a component of The I Project, aiming to provide resources to south and west side Chicago Public Schools elementary schools, so that those schools may be educationally equitable to other schools across the city. The campaign is based on the premise that the underlying cause of Chicago’s gun violence problem is the inaccessibility of resources such as education, employment, and nourishment. We believe that addressing the problem of educational inequity will semi-eradicate the need to partake in gang activity as a means of income. In 2017, we launched the campaign with a benefit concert for Bouchet Elementary, a predominantly Black and low-income elementary school located in the South Shore neighborhood. Working with the administration of the school, we set to raise $25,000 in order to meet a 1:1 student to Chromebook ratio. Now over a year later, we have raised over half of our goal, and secured opportunities for the students of Bouchet such as sponsored book sets and field trips.