Partnerships

One of the organizations with which the school has developed a partnership is a nonprofit organization called archi-treasures.  archi-treasures is an arts-based community development organization that specializes in building public spaces that empower individuals to share their future and the future of their communities.  During the spring of 2011, Till Academy and archi-treasures partnered together to create a plan and design for a school garden in honor of Emmett Louis Till, a former Till Academy student.  As you probably know, Emmett Louis Till was a 14 year old African American boy from Chicago who was brutally murdered while on a family visit to Mississippi in 1955.  Emmett’s mother insisted on a public funeral with an open casket in order to expose the brutality of the killing to the public.  Emmett’s murder is often cited as one of the key events that ignited the then nascent Civic Rights Movement.  Our school, formerly McCosh, was renamed in honor of Emmett Louis Till in 2006.

With the generous support of the South East Chicago Commission, archi-treasures and the Emmett Till Math & Science Academy (Till Academy) have greatly enhanced the physical attractiveness of the Woodlawn community. The overall goal of the Till Academy school garden project is to transform the underutilized vacant lots surrounding the school into active spaces for learning and growing. The South East Chicago Commission funding in 2011 supported the design, building and installation of an arbor at the entrance of the school garden.

The Institute for Translational Medicine at the University of Chicago was another important funder. Funding from the Institute underwrote some of the costs of the design charette, provided resources for garden workdays and supported stipends for Parent Coordinators. The activities that took place as a result of this funding directly impacted the Woodlawn community.