Legal Outreach

In 2021-22, Legal Outreach served 418 students which included 48 college students (freshmen), 227 high school students, and 143 middle school students. The 48 college freshmen were enrolled in 37 colleges. The 227 high school students participated in the college bound program, and the 143 middle school students (graduating 8th graders) participated in the summer law institute. With regard to college bound, we finished the year with 205 students enrolled (90% one year retention). We successfully implemented all elements of the multi-faceted program including the: 1) academic support center; 2) study and life skills program; 3) mentoring program; 4) constitutional law debate program; 5) parent support program; 6) saturday writing program; 7) college admissions program, 8) transition to college program, 9) college support program for our college freshmen. Summer college bound programs, all of which were done virtually, included 10) summer internships for rising 10th grade students; 11) sat prep program for rising 11th graders; and 12) college admissions program and college philosophy class for rising 12th graders. We also continued a new program element, the professional exposure program. Moreover, during the summer of 2022, we served 143 rising 9th graders, 123 of whom completed the five-week virtual program and 70 of whom joined the 2021-22 college bound program.in addition to the above, Legal Outreach continued to facilitate a leadership development module as part of the college bound program. The "civic engagement and social justice" program was continued for the purpose of supporting student-led projects focused on empowering people in poor or urban communities.due to the pandemic, all of the programs described above were implemented with a hybrid (virtual/in person) model. We returned to in person programming in the summer of 2023. At the end of the school year, we engaged philliber research associates to conduct an extensive evaluation of the college bound program. Among the most relevant statistics for measuring the effectiveness of the program were students' perceptions of the programs' usefulness. Students provided the following average ratings with regard to the value of the components of the college bound program: (1) keeping on track to college (88%) (2) preparing to compete at the collegiate level (87%), (3) improving academic skills (81%), (4) doing well in school (77%). Each of these ratings is well above our projection of 70%. According to the report, 98% of the students served came from minority groups and 84% received free or reduced-price lunch at school.