New Generation Fancy Drill Team

https://newgfancydrillteam.net/about-us

The New Generation Fancy Drill Team and Performance Arts Ensemble was established March 25, 2000, originally as an opportunity to provide a non-traditional recreational, physical fitness, educational, and cultural experience for public housing youth. On November 29, 2000, the drill team received its 501 (c)(3) and continued to broaden its scope of service by expanding citywide and providing service to inner city youth throughout the City of Chicago. The drill team is a unique prevention and skill-building program that seeks to attract and engage “at-risk” youths that are not interested in traditional recreational activities, which will give youths a positive alternative to the lure of the streets. The drill team is in the vanguard of providing a program that is well-focused and can improve the life prospects of disadvantaged youth. The program is designed to impose a structured value system with youth appeal, a value that promotes cultural awareness, academic excellence, and social, emotional, and cognitive resiliency, thus increasing their awareness of self and environment, making them more resistant to anti-social behavior. Studies show that the rate of older adolescents who are neither employed nor in school routinely exceeds 20% and that they can look forward to a staggering adult joblessness rate of 56%, as well as lives marked by violence and incarceration. We will continue to implement and develop strategies for youth empowerment with respect and dignity and evolve our programs to meet the changing and growing needs of youth in the communities served. Participants have become “goodwill ambassadors” throughout their communities. Involvement in the drill team has provided them with a positive alternative to the negative lures of the streets and aspects of life that are unfortunately associated with public housing and inner-city youth. Many of the participants come from single-family households with little to no structure. The drill team has helped to provide them with more structure in their lives and instilled in each of them a sense of pride, responsibility, and life skills through physical and educational involvement.