(Please Note: Our main website can be found at http://therethinkers.com. This is a working site for our staff, board and associates only.)

Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools (Rethink) is a civic engagement program for youth ages 8 to 16 - predominantly middle schoolers.

We empower young people to use their experiences, voices and leadership for positive change in their public schools. We believe that students are the true stakeholders when it comes to education. They deserve decision-making power as New Orleans rebuilds the public school system that is meant to serve them.

One year after Hurricane Katrina, during the summer of 2006, many families were just returning to the city. In June that year, twenty mainly African American middle school students participated in the first Rethink Summer School - a six-week-long youth leadership program that has become central to our operation. In this intensive program, “Rethinkers” explore their ideas about school change through visioning, art, architecture and critical thinking. At the end of the summer, they design and host a news event where they present concrete solutions to the city’s troubled education system. All the local media has covered Rethink news conferences in addition to national media outlets like the Christian Science Monitor, Tom Joyner and Nick News.

Since summer 2006 we have held two more summer school programs, established a year-round Rethink citywide group and launched Rethink after-school programs at four public school sites.

Perhaps what is truly innovative about Rethink is the combination of characteristics that define us. (1) A civic engagement program for middle schoolers that uses art, architecture and media skills as tools for empowerment and political change. (3) A middle school program whose agenda for change is directed exclusively at public school. (2) A youth leadership program based on the philosophy of “power among,” not power over.”

The best way to understand the unique power of Rethink is to check out our other website: therethinkers.org. Scroll to the media page and click on the U-tube documentaries. There you will see the Rethinkers speaking for themselves.