Program areas at CRF
Expanding Horizons Institute (EHI): EHI provides seminars and paid internships for first-generation, college bound youth in Los Angeles. Local businesses and agencies sponsor interns at their job sites.
Civic Action Program (CAP): CAP provides lessons that engage students in analyzing issues, learning about public policy, and choosing and addressing an issue that matters to them. CAP embeds research-based practices in civic learning. Over 600 teachers throughout the nation register on the CAP website annually.
Mock Trial: Teach Democracy develops a hypothetical criminal case each year for local and state competitions. Teams of students prepare to take the roles of attorneys, witnesses, clerks, and bailiffs and present either a prosecution or defense case presided over by volunteer judges and scored by volunteer attorneys. Over 8,000 students participate annually, along with hundreds of volunteers.
Teach Democracy is known for a wide range of ongoing, direct programming for students from primarily underserved communities. In these programs, we emphasize active learning through deliberation, discussion, simulations, and role play. When civic content and skills are taught effectively, young people also develop civic dispositions including the belief in their responsibility to participate in democratic processes, the value of keeping up with current events, respecting one another, and valuing the rights of others.