Legal Literacy forms the core of our programming. We provide our clients a range of workshops on the topics of employment law, family law and civic engagement. As our clients learn their rights, they take steps to assert them. This leads to broader awareness of and engagement in civic life, as they realize their own potential to affect public policy.
The civic education workshops instruct students on the following:
• the basics of the policy-making process
• public education and outreach
• research,
• media advocacy,
• legislative and regulatory advocacy; and
• public speaking
In these workshops, advocates select a policy problem, and are given the tools to study issues and brainstorm solutions. This culminates in an advocacy action such as letter writing to officials, a media event, a public education campaign (such as leafletting), or testimony before the City Council..
We use a two-tier training model and train students as trainers, who, in turn train others in civic engagement strategies.