The Chicago Wisdom Project
The Chicago
Wisdom Project
Mission
The mission of the Chicago
Wisdom Project is to empower todayÕs youth to transform themselves,
their communities, and the world by providing mentoring and the guidance
of elders in pursuing their passion, expressing the wisdom that is an
inherent part of their world to which they are intimately connected.
Through their unique expression of this wisdom we help the youth to
find their particular place in the world while empowering them to create
a more just, sustainable, and compassionate culture through their creativity.
Philosophy
The Chicago Wisdom Project
is founded upon the belief that wisdom is an inherent quality of every
being. Wisdom is our capacity to find meaning and connection in
our world. One of the ways we do this is through the imagination.
Today more than ever our culture requires creative approaches to find
meaning in our world.
The way a culture understands
and teaches its members their relationship to one another and the world
is called a cosmology or worldview. A worldview is expressed through
a cultureÕs mythology, its shared creative expression. The values
of a culture are determined by the lessons learned from the elders through
these myths, and by the novel creative expressions of new generations.
It is the particular role of the youth to give expression to this wisdom
in novel ways, and the task of the elders to guide them in this process.
Our youth clearly possess an abundance of creative energy, but often
lack the guidance to steer it in a positive direction and the encouragement
to become empowered to pursue their passions.
In response to the dominant
cultural paradigm that emphasizes test scores and quantifiable knowledge,
the Chicago Wisdom Project seeks to find the particular passion of each
student, allowing for the individualÕs imagination and creative energy
to foster a more meaningful and compassionate culture for the future.
This is not a program to ÒhelpÓ or to ÒsaveÓ the youth.
While one suspects it may serve this secondary purpose, the primary
purpose of the Chicago Wisdom Project is to empower the youth to create
a more meaningful and compassionate culture through their creativity.
For more information, go to www.chicagowisdomproject.org