Indiana Civil Liberties Union Awarded Grant for Community Outreach

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: media@aclu.org

New “What Are My Rights?” Program to Focus on At-Risk Youth and Immigrants

INDIANAPOLIS–The Indiana Civil Liberties Union announced today that it has received a $20,000 grant from the Efroymson Fund of the Central Indiana Community Foundation to support the creation of a “What Are My Rights?” program for community education and outreach. The grant will allow the ICLU to design and implement a civil liberties curriculum for at-risk high school youth and recent adult immigrants.

“The ICLU expresses our deep appreciation for the generosity of the Efroymson family,” said ICLU Executive Director Fran Quigley. “In this challenging climate for civil liberties, there is nothing more important than educating our young people and recent immigrants on the freedoms we are fighting to protect.”

As the state’s premier defender of the Bill of Rights, the ICLU said it receives hundreds of requests each year from community groups, academic institutions and other organizations seeking presentations on civil liberties and information on the individual freedoms protected by the Constitution. The Efroymson Fund support will allow the ICLU to better respond to those requests and reach out to communities, at-risk youth and recent immigrants, whose members’ rights are most likely to be at risk.

“A key part of our outreach will be to train and empower our many talented volunteers, including attorneys, teachers and librarians, in making these ‘What Are My Rights?’ presentations in their own Indiana communities,” Quigley said.

The ICLU also plans to use the grant resources to produce curriculum materials, including a DVD, for use in this instruction.

The grant is the first that the ICLU has received from the Efroymson Fund.