04.16.10 When the students of C-YA, the Chicago Youth Animators, were asked what the biggest problem in their community was, they all said violence.

After talking about solutions to this problem and ways to serve the community at large, they came up with the idea of holding an anti-violence rally. The students decided to take some of the virtues they discuss and exhibit on a regular basis at C-YA and teach them to their peers.

It was their idea to use this kind of character building in an effort to end violence, rather than just avoid it.

They conceived the idea, planned out the details, and lead the group of students who attended in a successful and exciting Virtues Rally.
The C-YA students gave an introduction and taught their audience of classmates the C-YA theme song that they wrote (see lyrics below).

They lead breakout groups including drumming, spoken word, acting, and dance; each activity used to express a virtue.

Many of the attending students could not believe that their peers would be teaching them and leading these groups, but they were excited and surprised to see how well they were able to achieve both.

The groups reconvened and gave four dynamic and creative virtue-based presentations. Invited guest speaker, Alderman Toni Preckwinkle, spoke about violence in the community and praised the students (especially the C-YA kids who organized the rally!) for their efforts.

To close out the rally, the C-YA students gave a closing speech and sang the C-YA song once again. The pride and sense of accomplishment was apparent on these students’ faces.
C-YA Song

Verse 1:
Chicago Youth Animators
We Animate Chicago

Verse 2:
C-YA is teaching us
that we can be powerful

Verse 3:
We have different virtues
to see how far we go like

Courage
Nobility
Kindness
Humility
Justice
Integrity
Truthfulness
and Generosity

Verse 4:
Use them in our daily life
as guides to succeed
with C-YA on our side
successful we will be!

Chorus:
C-Y-A
C-Y-A
C-Y-A
C-YA!!!
04.10.09 The Baha’i Newsreel featured the Chicago Youth Animators in a recent piece on junior youth groups throughout the USA. A link to the segment on C-YA can be found here.