Youth on probation at the Friends Neighborhood Guild in Philadelphia put their creativity and ingenuity to work last year writing and illustrating a comic book. Over 20 weeks, participants learned about all of the elements involved in creating a story, read and discussed different comic books, studied how illustrations tell a story and then created their own comic book. During the course of the project, guest artists (cartoonists, storytellers and writers) from similar cultural backgrounds came to discuss their craft and their lives with participants. The artists also spoke about living by values other than material ones. Two other projects resulted in a rap music tape and an anthology of stories. Both involved a similar process of analyzing the structure of the craft, talking with guest artists about their work and then creating pieces. "Our interdisciplinary approach has shown the kids that they are capable of doing things that they once thought were impossible. Also, that they can be excited about subjects they had never been interested in before, like writing, reading and history," says Homer Jackson, project director.