What’s RITE in St. Louis? Empowering Urban Youth Through a Community Tutoring Collaborative

Abstract

This study profiles tutoring programs that empower urban youth within the Regional Institute of Tutorial Education (RITE), a community collaborative of universities, youth agencies, community service organizations, and school districts. Representative members of RITE detail how they address shared urban problems of academic deficits, school dropout, and pregnancy in St. Louis’s urban school districts. Tutoring models of targeted, cross-curricular, collaborative, community directed, and youth-led instruction are described as delivered by Gene Slay’s Girls & Boys Club of St. Louis (GSGBCSTL), the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), the Clayton-Ladue Rotary community service organization, Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID), a nationally licensed college preparation program and Conscious Choice (CC), a University of Missouri–St. Louis and St. Louis University student retention and pregnancy prevention program. Data, narratives, and tutoring structures describe how some members of the RITE collaborative assist in addressing both the academic and social needs of urban schools. The achievements of these RITE members demonstrate how frequently unrecognized and underutilized university and community resources are able to empower urban youth.