Children's Defense Fund - Youth Leadership

Youth Leadership

CDF works to ensure that today's children become healthy and productive adults that grow into the next generation of leaders. CDF has several programs that help children succeed in school, celebrate youth who have overcome personal obstacles, and train young adults to become child advocates.

CDF's Black Community Crusade for Children (BCCC) led to the creation of the CDF Freedom Schools program in 1995, offering children enrichment through a reading curriculum that seeks to foster a love of learning and to empower children to make a difference in their families, communities and the nation. In the summer of 2007, CDF Freedom Schools sponsor partners served over 8,300 children in 61 cities and 25 states (and D.C.), including over 1,750 children in the Gulf Coast Region (AL,LA,MS,TX). Since 1995, over 64,000 children and families have been reached through the CDF Freedom Schools program experience.

The Children's Defense Fund Beat the Odds program each year provides students around the country with partial college scholarships. Founded in 1990, the Beat the Odds program has awarded hundreds of scholarships to high school students who have overcome adversity in their lives and gone on to achieve academic excellence and give back to their communities.

The Children's Defense Fund Youth Advocacy Leadership Training (YALT) program helps young people who are committed to social justice and the welfare of all children develop into the next generation of leaders. Each year, the YALT program provides hundreds of young adults an opportunity to connect with other young leaders, community organizers and child advocates from around the country to learn new advocacy skills, models and strategies that can be implemented in their communities back home and on their college campuses.