CLIA impacts Youth Voice

Youth Voice impacts young people

• In 2010, 98% of the high school seniors in CLIA programs graduated and went on to college, career school or the military.


• CLIA provided an adult mentor for over 200 local teens in 2010-2011.


• Twenty CLIA Law & Leadership students enrolled in early college courses at the University of Baltimore in Fall 2010 with assistance on tuition and books for their families.


• CLIA created paid “professional” jobs for 18 teens in 2010 to work in City Hall, government agencies and CLIA’s office.


• CLIA’s Youth Justice workshop helped the Juvenile Unit at the Baltimore City Detention Center lower violent incidents in the facility by almost 300% over three years.

Youth Voice impacts schools

• CLIA drafted a new law-related career education curriculum for Baltimore City Schools which was approved by the Maryland State Department of Education in 2007. It is currently used in seven local high schools.


• In September 2002, CLIA was awarded a Gates Foundation grant to design the Baltimore Freedom Academy (BFA), which opened in 2003.


• In 2002, CLIA was awarded a contract to administer the School Violence Prevention Demonstration Program (SVPDP) in Baltimore City. CLIA has provided teacher training and support for 11 Baltimore City middle school teachers and reached over 500 students.


• CLIA has partnered with the University of Maryland Law School to develop an innovative Consumer Law curriculum. Students will learn important lessons from victims and advocates and will have the opportunity to work on real cases and studies with attorneys and law students.


• CLIA’s Teen Leaders for Change after-school program spent 2009-2010 working on a project to make sure low income students had access to free or low cost school uniforms. Their research showed some classmates were not attending school because of uniform-related issues.


• CLIA partnered with the Hippodrome Foundation to provide City Schools with hundreds of tickets to performances of Twelve Angry Men and Hairspray, preceded by workshops on the legal system and the impact of racism.

Youth Voice impacts Baltimore

The support of advocacy projects designed and implemented by young people for the betterment of schools and neighborhoods is central to CLIA’s mission. Over the last 5 years, youth inspired and engaged by CLIA have:

• Worked with public health officials to design a survey on flavored tobacco use and administer it to almost 2,500 teens. The information was presented to the City Council and the City’s Health Commissioner.


• Helped to negotiate the removal of over 75 alcohol and tobacco billboards near residential communities, schools, and churches and passed one of the nation’s strongest outdoor advertising regulations designed to protect young people.


• Surveyed a thirty-block radius of the city to create a comprehensive study of vacant houses. The results led to the demolition of over thirty vacant properties by the city.


• Negotiated with the MTA to restore needed bus service to their school and to develop a feedback mechanism whereby students could register service complaints to the MTA.


• Advocated to the City School Board for funding to fix school bathrooms, many of which were effectively unusable and not in compliance with the city health code.


• Hosted a televised public hearing at City Hall where students could learn how the school system budget is created and to offer comments.


• Taped an anti-gang public service announcement with filmmaking students at Goucher College.


• Collected information on non-compliant bars and liquor stores in their neighborhoods and participated in arbitration with some of those businesses.


• Researched the use of private homes for drug dealing and helped law students draft and file several drug nuisance cases.


• Assisted community leaders with a 1997 bond bill that led to funding of the Earles R, Mitchell Community Center in Park Heights.


• Surveyed local middle schools, documenting multiple violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and drafting a report for the School Board.


• Created a video and a pamphlet geared towards educating young homeowners and first-time home buyers avoid real estate scams. Students also worked with the AARP to create workshops to educate senior citizens on home improvement scams.