In 1991, Dale Davis, Executive Director of The New York State Literary Center (NYSLC), was invited to design and conduct a writing project at a �last stop� program for high school students struggling with severe learning, behavioral, social, and emotional needs. Prior to the project, the students were reluctant to put any words on paper.  Through The NYSLC, Davis published a book, Just Give Us A Chance, of the tremendous amount of writing by the students generated during the project.

In 1994, Davis created an installation with the writing of  the students from the "last stop" program  for The American Council on The Arts in New York. The installation attracted the attention of media critic, Jon Katz who wrote an article on the installation and Davis� work for New York Magazine. The article generated a tremendous number of orders for the books of writing by the students. The need for NYSLC publications both in education and for rehabilitation was clearly demonstrated through the number of orders.

Publication of excerpts from the books in newspapers throughout the country brought additional attention. The books were selected for inclusion in the ERIC Clearinghouse on urban Education (ERIC/CU) of Teachers College, Columbia University. In November of 1994, Dale Davis wrote an Op-Ed Column for The New York Times on the students and their writing.

In 1995 THE COMMUNICATION PROJECT was formally inaugurated. The success of THE COMMUNICATION PROJECT included its expansion into:

• residential placement programs for adolescent youth

• day treatment programs

• group homes

• juvenile justice facilities

Since 1995, THE COMMUNICATION PROJECT with funding from The National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Criminal Justice Services, and The New York State Council on The Arts:

• works with young people at highest risk for educational failure

• engages and motivates students through curricular units designed to relate their lives to what is being taught

• brings real life projects into classrooms to provide students with unusual opportunities, interesting projects, and tough problems to solve.

• connects students to the real world through projects that involve them in their own communities.

• makes the classroom a real community as students work together on CDs, plays, and publications.

• provides research on youth culture and adolescents at the highest risk for educational failure on an on-going basis

• creates a yearly research-based curriculum

• produces an e news FYIs that bring together teachers, administrators, staff, and mental health workers who work with high risk adolescents

• edits, publishes, and produces the writing of the young people generated during the writing projects into books, the CDs, and theater pieces

Two students in THE COMMUNICATION PROJECT have won national poetry competitions; one student had an article published in Blue Jean Magazine, and another student�s writing was included as part of an article on juvenile violence in Gannett Rochester�s Democrat and Chronicle. In 2005 three books of poetry by COMMUNICATION PROJECT students were included in an exhibition at Poet�s House in New York.

In 1998, THE COMMUNICATION PROJECT began a collaboration with an on line service for journalists to inform the public about children�s� issues. The service�s website cited THE COMMUNICATION PROJECT as an example of the type of project for youth at-risk that is promoted by The President�s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. A student�s writing was featured on the website, both as a hook for journalists and as an example of how to write a story. The student�s book, Black Men, was published by The NYSLC and made available through Amazon.com. In 2005, THE COMMUNICATION PROJECT began an ongoing collaboration with Pacific News Service�s The Beat Within. In 2005, writing by students in the Rochester City School District�s Youth and Justice Programs at the Monroe Correctional Facility was prominently featured in The Beat Within.

In 2000, Davis produced a CD of students in residential placement reading and performing their writing as a way to develop reading and writing skills. Davis saw producing a CD as another opportunity to extend the students� academic knowledge, social skills, and personal behaviors. Young Souls Speaking was the first CD she recorded and produced. It was produced as a NYSLC pilot program. The pilot was extremely successful. Adolescents with low reading skills who refused to read aloud became comfortable reading and performing their writing by the time they went to the recording studio.

The 100 books, 20 issues of a news journal, 7 videos, 18 CDs, 30 children�s books, and 2 hip-hop theater pieces written and produced through THE COMMUNICATION PROJECT further the intellectual abilities of high-risk young people by providing them with the tools necessary to construct meaning in their lives and in their academic tasks. THE COMMUNICATION PROJECT connects adolescents to positive values to provide them with the opportunity to actively respond to events, rather than to passively react to them. THE COMMUNICATION PROJECT makes the connections between what is learned in school and the students� lives. THE COMMUNICATION PROJECT is the bridge from the rhyme book to the classroom.