Grow Your Own Teachers (GYO)

ANI’s Grow Your Own (GYO) Teachers and Pre-GYO program are designed to develop and train highly effective teacher-leaders for low-income community public schools, reduce teacher turnover and increase the number of highly effective teachers of color.

Grow Your Own Teachers

Grow Your Own Teachers is unique in the fact that we provide activities and services that address the many issues that teachers will face in the classroom. During the course of the program, teacher candidates will have access to seminars and trainings that focus on issues such as classroom management and parent-teacher engagement, as well as community-based informational sessions addressing the foreclosure crisis and other community issues. Our GYO program has been functioning in North Lawndale since 2007. Our teacher candidates are provided financial support for childcare and transportation through state funds; assistance with applying for financial aid; and guidance in selecting classes, attaining a degree from a College of Education, and developing skills for successful careers as highly effective teachers. ANI’s GYO candidates fulfill the complete undergraduate education curriculum at Northeastern Illinois University.

More information about the GYO Program is available at Grow Your Own Teachers.

If you are interested in becoming a “Grow Your Own Teacher”, please contact Susan Smith Ross at [email protected] or 312-676-4274.

Pre-GYO Program

ANI created Pre-GYO in 2010 as an intensive recruitment and training program that bridges more people of color into the GYO program. ANI’s Pre-GYO program is for teacher candidates not yet eligible for GYO, and offers all of the benefits of GYO with the exception of tuition assistance. They participate in GYO events including seminars and rallies, and are supported through their first year, after which they should fulfill the requirements of GYO. Pre-GYO began in North Lawndale and is expanding to include Englewood and our other targeted communities. Other GYO consortia across the state have reviewed our model and are adding Pre-GYO to their program.