Contributed byThe SC Bar

Following a competitive proposal process with other bar associations, the SC Bar’s Law Related Education Division has been selected by the Center for Civic Education to host the Project Citizen Southeast Region Professional Development Institute for three consecutive years beginning in the summer of 2006.

The institute will provide teachers throughout the southeast with an in–depth look at public policy issues and address how students can improve their communities and schools through Project Citizen. The Bar will work with the Strom Thurmond Institute of Government and Public Affairs at Clemson University to host the institutes.

The Project Citizen program encourages students to research a public policy they believe should be revised or created. By doing so, students learn what it means to be effective citizens and are inspired to try to make changes in their communities. Each portfolio entered in the showcase includes an identified problem, three proposed alternative policies, a class policy and an action plan.

The Project Citizen program is made possible in South Carolina through an IOLTA grant from the South Carolina Bar Foundation and the Center for Civic Education. The LRE Division, which was developed to improve the ability of teachers to instruct law related education, has been a part of the Bar since 1976. The SC Bar, which has a membership of more than 11,500 lawyers, is dedicated to advancing justice, professionalism and understanding of the law.