Research indicates that extracurricular activities encourage peer interaction, promote cooperation, build student-adult relationships and help strengthen the student-school connection. It has been found that students who participate in these activities achieve higher grade point averages, miss fewer days of school, and are more likely to graduate. However, each year thousands of Illinois’ students- those excluded from the educational mainstream-are unable to participate in these types of experiences and that’s where CAAEL comes in. Annually, CAAEL gives over 5000 students access to extracurricular activities they otherwise would not have. CAAEL sponsors a variety of events year round: academic bowls, spelling bees, chess, bowling, basketball, flag football, volleyball, soccer, softball, art, badminton, and high ropes courses- 1100 events each year. CAAEL is unique in that it does not run after school programs. All activities are directly integrated into each school’s educational curriculum and schedule with competitions taking place during the school day. CAAEL participants may be aggressive, withdrawn, emotionally disturbed, learning disabled, behaviorally challenging, socially isolated, gang involved, drug dependent, depressed, or truant. And that’s the magic of CAAEL. Our students come in all different shapes and sizes- different races, different socio-economic backgrounds, different disabilities and abilities. Yet they come together each week and interact beautifully. The wide range of students CAAEL successfully serves truly defies the norm. And as a result, CAAEL kids learn to see beyond themselves. They develop empathy. They learn to embrace diversity. For as different as our kids are, they have this in common… they deserve to have fun, they must be seen and valued. CAAEL’s positive, healthy experiences afford them the opportunity. CAAEL is the only organization providing this broad scope programming for Illinois' growing number of high-risk youth.