Personal Mission:
I create a world where father and son live in harmony, by mentoring youth into men of character.
Action in the World:
DiVittorio developed BAM in 2001 while working as a psychologist at Roberto Clemente High School. Since then, the program has expanded to 16 CPS schools — including Harper High School in Englewood. Researchers at the University Of Chicago Crime Lab used school and arrest records to track results.
“We measured a reduction in violent offending during the time of the intervention of more than 40%. We also saw that kids were more engaged in school which largely were bringing them to the bottom of the grade curve and we saw when we looked forward that kids were less likely to show up in a school that was connected to the juvenile justice system,” Harold Pollack, University of Chicago Crime Lab, said.
Students say the male mentoring as key.
“I was going to sleep in school, coming late, not finishing homework, things like that. After like a month, it changed me. I was more mature and I was around a lot of positive people. They kind of made me focus on what was important,” Dontavious Smith, 16, said.
The city’s additional investment will give an additional 5,500 at-risk youth access to the program and will help pay for a new tutoring component to help shore up student’s academics.
