Some startups are tackling more complex issues than others. The Explorer Program might just be trying to fix Chicago's biggest problem of all: reducing gang violence and putting a dent in the school-to-prison pipeline in the city.
It's a lofty goal and one that founder Julius Givens says he doesn't expect to completely fix, but if he can make a difference in a handful of teenagers' lives, The Explorer Program will be a success. And the non-profit wants to do so through offering art programs to students in Chicago's roughest neighborhoods.
The Explorer Program launched earlier this year with a small cohort of high school students from the Cabrini Green neighborhood who were given Nikon D40 cameras and created photographs of places throughout Chicago. The Explorer Program has partnered with Cabrini Connections and Chicago Hope Academy on the West Side to connect with students, and it's working with Brooklyn Boulders in the West Loop, and well as the Art Institute as well as the Museum of Contemporary Art on ways to showcase student work.
But Givens said art is meant to capture students' attention, and the real goal is providing life lessons and an opportunity to see more that the city has to offer.
"Our value lies in how we can transcend those art lessons to everyday life lessons," Givens said. "How [completing an art project] correlates with how you can overcome adversity at school."
"We want to give them [a creative] outlet," he added. "Give them a way to express themselves, and then use that same expression in their everyday lives."
The Explorer Program is based out of the in-house incubator at ContextMedia, the Chicago tech company led by Rishi Shah and Shradha Agarwal. Givens, who works in sales at ContextMedia, has used the space to grow his startup and has received backing from ContextMedia to get the Explorer Program off the group.
Givens said he took Shah and Agarwal out to lunch one day to pitch the idea, and they told him to go for it, even though it will likely mean he leaves ContextMedia one day to run The Explorer Program full time.
"They believed in the vision and what we wanted to do, and said 'have at it,'" Givens said. "As we increase our bandwidth and I continue to raise capital, and we continue to get other folks involved, I’m going to have to step down and they understand that."
Givens said the next group of Explorers is set to begin next month with around 25 Chicago Public High School students participating.
Image via Julius Givens
