The Hip-hop Project, a documentary about a unique New York City program that uses rap to help troubled teens transform their lives, opens in theatres today. The focus of the documentary is Chris Rolle, aka Kazi, who was a student of the program.

"'The whole curriculum was based on the arts,' Rolle says. 'So if you were studying American history, you did it through playwriting... We created a play, but to create the play we had to get the information. So we didn't even realize we were learning American history because we were focused on doing this thing that we actually liked.'"

A few years after Rolle graduated, and his former teacher Scott Rosenberg created the program Hip-hop Project, which is used not only to educate, but to help the teens heal and overcome the obstacles of their lives. The program culminates with the recording and release of a CD. Read more at Chron.com.

Other obstacles teens have to overcome can include teen drug use and abuse. Learn about how teens can find help for teen drug abuse at DrugRehabTreatment.com.

Labels: arts, role_models, schools