Community violence, alienation and adultism are some of the topics that will be discussed at a community forum showcasing the artistic talents of urban teens at 6 p.m. on Friday, March 14, in Room 161 of DePaul University’s Schmitt Academic Center, 2320 N. Kenmore, on DePaul’s Lincoln Park campus.

Titled “Worldly Inspiration: A Live Youth Forum,” the program will feature poetry, skits, songs, video presentations and social commentary by high school students on the ever-increasing complexity of community violence, alienation and adultism, or discrimination against young people. It is free and open to the public.

“It is designed to provoke a dialogue where people can come to know the needs, issues and concerns of young people and how they personalize the world around them,” said Horace R. Hall, assistant professor of education at DePaul and founder of the R.E.A.L. Youth Program (www.realprogram.org). Hall started the program eight years ago in a number of Chicago public and charter schools to provide a safe haven for students to talk about the issues they face.

“Given the threat of a number of school closings, escalating community violence, increasing student dropout rates among African-American and Latino males, and city budget cuts that produce more economic hardships, the young members of R.E.A.L. wanted to speak out and use their voices to inform the larger society that to remain silent is to be complicit in all of the above,” Hall said.

R.E.A.L., which stands for respect, excellence, attitude and leadership, is a mentoring program that helps young people ages 12 to 18 interpret their issues and confront personal and social obstacles preventing them from healthy growth and development. Typically, the program works with youth who are struggling academically and socially.

The forum also will feature guest speakers Alex Correa, an adult leader and youth activist, and Pamela Osbey, an author and community youth activist who works with student literacy programs in Chicago Public Schools with the Poetry Center of Chicago.

“It is meant to heal, inspire and challenge human beings to be open and accept others, not based on their color, but based on the content of their character and individuality,” Osbey said.

The forum also is sponsored by the Howard Area Leadership Academy and DePaul’s School of Education. For more information, please contact Hall at (773) 325-4693 or by e-mail at hhall@depaul.edu.