Casa Juan Diego is the community youth center sponsored by St. Pius V Parish in Chicago. The center serves children and youth six to 18 years of age with after-school programming that focuses on academic improvement, language and cultural development and violence prevention.

Casa Juan Diego was formed in 1996 as a collaboration between the staff of St. Pius V Parish and local parents on the Lower West Side who wanted a safe and positive environment for their children growing up in a neighborhood plagued by poverty and violence. What started with one staff person and fifteen children has grown into a full-service youth program with nine staff and 80 participants each day.

In 2011, Casa Juan Diego is launching a family literacy initiative using research based best practices to provide activities and instruction for individual students, their families, schools and the wider community. Activities will include culturally appropriate book discussions in both Spanish and English; read-alouds and book clubs of multicultural texts and leveled texts recommended by Chicago Public Schools; a computer based literacy program focused on phonological awareness and comprehension; and family literacy nights and trainings. The goal of the new program is to significantly improve the students' level of literacy and academic achievement.

For more information, visit the Casa Juan Diego website: www.casajuandiego.org