Kids on the Youth Advisory
Committee of ACLU are serious about having
fun. The extensive Howard A. Friedman First
Amendment Project is an example of their dedication
to fellow-students' rights.
The
'project' is really a series of biannual conferences
across the nation which address the needs of
the younger generation by feeding an interest
in civil liberties and civil rights. Every spring
and fall more than 1000 high school students
from local areas attend the conferences.
The events at the conferences personify the
main goal of the project, which is to educate
teachers and students about the Bill of Rights
and its relevance to their lives.
ACLU Youth choose the event topics, that typically
highlight representative speakers from various
institutions such as the Hoopa Valley tribe,
Safe School Coalition, and the Women's Institute
for Leadership Development (WILD). Students choose
and organize the entertainment, which varies
from poetry jamming to breakdancing.
Spokeperson
Nancy Otto says that the conferences "essentially
provide a space for young people to talk about
issues of importance to them and find some commonality."
The ACLU Web page of Northern California also
suggests sites for learning about youth activism
and youth rights. It also provides resources
for teachers and laying out a format for building
ACLU clubs.
|
