Street Law
Background
The original “Street Law” program, launched at Georgetown University in 1972, was founded to provide a greater understanding of the law to those outside the legal profession and to promote the use of interactive educational methods to develop academic, critical thinking, and civic skills. In 1998, MJF collaborated with law school professors, Legal Aid, the Legal Rights Center, and the Hennepin County Public Defender’s Office to develop the Minnesota Justice Foundation Street Law program.
Learn MoreTraining
Law students who participate in the Street Law program receive training on how to create a lesson plan that engages youth and adult learners in different areas of the law that may be interesting for their students. Volunteers also participate in an awareness embodiment training that helps volunteers center themselves and understand how their education and place in society shapes their worldview to help volunteers enter the classroom better able to recognize and work through their own biases.
Learn MoreTeaching
Street Law is a program of MJF in which law student volunteers teach legal rights, responsibilities, and resources to middle school, high school, and adult students.
MJF’s Street Law program provides law school mentors/role models to young people from the Twin Cities and encourages classroom students to attend law school in the future. A growing number of Street Law classrooms are “AVID” classrooms (Advancement Via Individual Determination). These middle and high school classrooms strive to close the achievement gap by preparing all students for college readiness and success in a global society. AVID students are an excellent fit for Street Law volunteers because, at the heart of the Street Law program, is the desire to help prepare young people for a bright future – one where they are knowledgeable of their rights and responsibilities and encouraged that they can overcome obstacles to success.
The goals of the MJF Street Law program are to increase the legal and civic knowledge of youth throughout the Twin Cities as well as to increase the youth’s confidence in their abilities to take part in legal and civic solutions. MJF believes that educating youth in the law helps them to be informed, skilled, and engaged in improving their lives, communities, and governments and that – ultimately – this will lead to a more just and fairer world.
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