Education
Through our educational events, we advance our mission to empower and strengthen our community by fostering understanding, appreciation, and dialogue around art, culture, and history. Join us as we illuminate pathways to empowerment through knowledge and engagement.
Children’s Defense Fund Freedom School®
The Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) Freedom Schools® is a six-week, full-day program for students in grades K-12 that seeks to build strong, literate, and empowered children prepared to make a difference in themselves, their families, communities, the nation, and the world. By providing summer reading enrichment for children who might otherwise not have access to books, the program plays a pivotal role in helping to curb summer learning loss and close achievement gaps. Our scholars gain an average of eight to ten months of reading skills throughout the program. Our Freedom School has served over 900 students since its inception.
The Five Core Components Of Freedom School
The program encourages and aids school-aged youth in building and strengthening reading and digital literacy skills through its five core components:
- High-quality academic enrichment
- Parent and family involvement
- Social action and civic engagement
- Intergenerational servant leadership development
- Nutrition, health, and mental health
Beyond seeking to enhance reading skills, CDF Freedom Schools also engage our young scholars with book characters who look like them and themes and stories that resonate with them. Ignite the power of literacy for your child. Enroll now.
Servant Leader Intern
Are you ready to unlock a world of possibilities for school-aged youth? Join our program as a Servant Leader (SLI) Intern today. The SLI is a classroom teacher in a Freedom Schools literacy-based summer enrichment program. The SLI leads a literacy-rich curriculum during the morning and chaperones activities in the afternoon. Applicants should be responsible, energetic, adaptable, a strong role model, and experienced in working with groups of children. A background check is required.
Are you ready to be a champion for literacy? You can read the full position description or email freedomschool@niacultural.org to apply.
Our other educational enrichment activities include The Outdoor Classroom and Black History Quiz Bowl.
Learn more about how you can get involved.