Constitutional Rights Foundation

The Constitutional Rights Foundation (CRF) and Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago (CRFC) are nonprofit, nonpartisan organizations dedicated to educating young people to be more effective citizens through LRE and civic participation. CRF publishes a variety of learning resources, including full-length and supplemental texts, curricular and informational newsletters, and student handbooks for general and at-risk populations. CRF provides training on its materials and programs and on contemporary issues that affect young people. CRF also offers help in planning and implementing teacher-training programs, advisory boards, Law Day events, youth summits, police and judicial field experiences, youth conferences, and mock trial competitions.

Program Highlights

Youth Summits, sponsored by CRF, are designed to help youth and adults identify and understand public policy issues and encourage youth to participate actively in developing solutions to problems that their communities face. The Youth Summit Planning Guide (1996) and additional summit resources are available on the Internet.¹¹

California State Mock Trial, a CRF-sponsored competition, involves high school and middle school student teams in a simulated court case. Volunteer judges and attorneys assist in coaching or adjudicating mock trials throughout California.

Sports and the Law is an in-school or afterschool model that helps students develop an understanding of rules and laws through curriculum and sports activities.

Publications

The following classroom-tested CRF resources combine traditional instruction with interactive activities such as simulations and direct contact with outside resource workers.

Bill of Rights in Action is a free quarterly newsletter that provides student readings and interactive teaching strategies focusing on the legal aspects of historical and contemporary issues for U.S. history, government, and world history courses.

Criminal Justice in America is a six-unit high school text, supported by a teacher’s guide, that presents a comprehensive survey of criminal justice through an examination of criminal law and procedure and every aspect of the criminal justice system. Each unit features enrichment activities such as role-playing and moot court trials.

Violence-Prevention Outcomes in Civic Education (VOICE) is a year-long, seven-unit elementary school social studies program designed to increase academic achievement, foster peaceful resolution of conflict, and establish the habit of community service among fourth and fifth graders. The text helps students gain basic civic knowledge about how the U.S. Government works and about their roles as citizens in the Nation’s constitutional democracy.

Youth and Police is designed to help middle school students learn about law, improve their relations with police, and take part in service-learning activities to improve public safety. The curriculum consists of 10 interactive lessons.

Training of Trainers “This is the best training experience I have had.” This comment was typical of the reactions garnered by a recent Youth for Justice training-of-trainers session. Sixteen people nominated by State LRE project directors attended the professional development institute held October 30 through November 5, 1999, in Santa Monica, CA. In addition to the American educators, a program officer for Civitas Nigeria participated. The institute prepared participants to teach their peers how to use CCE’s Foundations of Democracy curriculum. Participants earned certification to conduct national and international training sessions on the Foundations’ curriculum.

Law in Social Studies is a series of supplementary texts that integrates the study of law into standard social studies course objectives. The series includes The Drug Question: The Constitution and Public Policy (U.S. government), American Album: 200 Years of Constitutional Democracy (U.S. history), To Promote the General Welfare: The Purpose of Law (U.S. history), Of Codes and Crowns: The Development of Law (world history), and From the School Newsroom to the Courtroom (U.S. government). Each textbook is supported by a step-by-step teacher’s guide.

CityWorks is a high school curriculum that links the study of local government to mainstream government courses through service learning and research. The curriculum consists of six classroom lessons and six research and application activities.

Police Patrol and We the Jury are simulations that engage the whole classroom in playing roles, such as police officer or witness, in scenarios that demonstrate the real life experiences of police or jurors.

Streets, the Courts, and the Community includes 10 interactive lessons that enable juvenile offenders and at-risk students to develop valuable skills as they learn about the American civil and criminal justice systems.

It’s Yours: The Bill of Rights is an eight-unit textbook for students for whom English is a second language. It uses interactive strategies to examine the rights and responsibilities of citizens under the U.S. legal system. The teacher’s guide incorporates both language acquisition techniques and LRE strategies.

The Illinois Youth Summit: Policy Analysis and Community Service The Illinois Youth Summit combines in-class policy analysis with community service to address issues of violence and public safety. More than 1,000 students representing more than 20 Illinois high schools participate in this program annually. Each summit is guided by a Student Advisory Committee, composed of two representatives from each school, which selects policies and programs to research and discuss at the summit. During the spring semester, students study, discuss, and respond to the problem of violence using a special curriculum written by CRFC for the summit; they also design and implement a service project in their school to address one of the selected issues. The program culminates at the end of the school year in a daylong summit, where 200 student delegates meet with local, State, and national policymakers to address these issues. Summits have featured teleconferences with U.S. Representatives and Senators from Illinois; OJJDP Acting Administrator John J. Wilson; the Governor’s Office in Springfield, IL; and students facing the same issues in Lima, Peru.

The Challenge Series, sponsored by the W.M. Keck Foundation, addresses key challenges facing our Nation. The Challenge of Diversity provides an indepth look at issues of racial and ethnic diversity in the United States. The Challenge of Violence outlines the problem of violence, examines public policies addressing violence, and teaches violence-prevention strategies. The Challenge of Information examines issues surrounding information and the media, including the first amendment, press responsibility, free press, fair trial, misinformation, and the Internet. Each book has a separate teacher’s guide.

CityYouth is the curriculum for a multidisciplinary, curriculum-based, service-learning program for middle school students. With a grant from the Carnegie Foundation, CRF developed this 32-lesson curriculum that includes a teacher’s guide, student materials, and assessment strategies.

Active Citizenship Today (ACT) is the curriculum for a program that CRF developed in collaboration with the Close Up Foundation. The ACT program integrates the study of government with active community participation. ACT students examine local issues with national public policy implications (e.g., crime) and combine their studies with ongoing community service projects. ACT teacher materials and student field guides are available in both junior and senior high school versions.

Training Opportunities

Training for teachers who work with regular and at-risk students is available on a variety of issues, topics, and strategies. Recent training has focused on the jury system, the Bill of Rights, equal protection, voting rights, criminal procedure, civil discussion, federalism, diversity, and discrimination. Training is available through open enrollment conferences, seminars, and institutes. Fee-for-service opportunities are also available to interested schools and institutions.

Training for police officers, judges, and community leaders who are interested in supporting Youth for Justice activities with young people is also available. CRF provides basic training in LRE methods and issues and offers opportunities for partnerships with teachers and their students. CRF also works with selected LRE sites, such as the courts, to provide LRE field experiences for interested schools.

Training and placement opportunities for attorneys who are interested in volunteer experiences, working side-by-side with teachers, are available. Attorneys receive training in LRE methods and issues, study sample LRE lessons, and learn how to serve as effective partners of teachers in the classroom.

Youth for Justice	Juvenile Justice Bulletin • April 2001