Legal Outreach

In 2022-23, Legal Outreach served 382 students which included 37 college students (freshmen), 201 high school students, and 144 middle school students. The 37 college freshmen were enrolled in 34 colleges. The 201 high school students participated in the college bound program, and the 144 middle school students (graduating 8th graders) participated in the summer law institute. With regard to college bound, we finished the year with 185 students enrolled (92% 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. In addition, during the summer of 2023, we served 144 rising 9th graders, 139 of whom completed the five-week virtual program and 70 of whom joined the 2022-23 college bound program.seventy-three of our college bound students also actively participated in the civic engagement and social justice program this year, with 32 serving on the civic engagement and social justice leadership council (21 seniors, 8 juniors, and 3 sophomores). The council members were divided into three committees and applied their energies to three distinct projects: (1) a voter preregistration drive aimed at 16 and 17 year olds, (2) producing a plan of action for reducing student/police encounters in the subways, and (3) presenting a lesson on police use of force within the curriculum of public schools.in addition, beyond the activities of the leadership council, 131 sophomores, juniors, and seniors were afforded the opportunity to learn about, write about and debate current social justice topics in our saturday writing program and constitutional law debate program.legal Outreach began the 2022-23 school year in a hybrid model, with some programming taking place in-person and some remaining virtual. While a few of our classes are virtual, our programs are now primarily in person to encourage community building among students and face-to-face assistance from instructors. 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 (92%) (2) preparing to compete at the collegiate level (92%), (3) improving academic skills (86%), (4) doing well in school (79%). 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 85% received free or reduced-price lunch at school