Youth Summit on Violence Prevention Helps Prevent Crime and Teaches Kids to Play by the Rules

On April 30, 2010, more than 175 young people from schools across Birmingham and Jefferson County will participate in the 2010 Youth Summit on Violence Prevention to be held at Samford University. The Youth Summit will allow young people from across the metropolitan Birmingham area to voice their views on violence prevention and to express their ideas on how to make their communities safer. The Youth Summit uses the power of active learning to teach youth about the law, their rights and responsibilities, and provide them with the tools to address the risks facing youth in America today. This is the sixth summit sponsored by the Alabama Center for Law & Civic Education (ACLCE) since 1995, and is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs.

 

In preparation for the Youth Summit, students will study Alabama law using ACLCE’s flagship program, Play by the Rules: Alabama Laws for Youth.  Play by the Rules is an award-winning crime prevention model for teaching state-specific law to middle school students. The program was created by ACLCE in 2001. Play by the Rules is taught as a part of the seventh grade civics curriculum in Alabama schools.  Since its inception, more than 450,000 student books and 12,500 teacher’s guides have been distributed to Alabama schools and more than 1,400 teachers, counselors, attorneys, police officers and court personnel have been trained in the program.

 

The American Bar Association (ABA) has designated May 1, 2010 as Law Day. The theme for this year is “Law in the 21st Century: Eduring Traditions, Emerging Challenges.” Law Day 2010 provides an opportunity for students to understand and appreciate global issues such as human rights, criminal justice, intellectual property, dispute resolution and violence prevention. The Youth Summit will provide an opportunity for youth to explore these issues at both the local and global level.

 

This year, Chief Johnnie Johnson (Brighton Chief of Police) will be the keynote speaker and share his views on what youth can do to prevent violence and make their communities safer.  Joining Chief Johnson in addressing the students will be Brandon Falls (Jefferson County District Attorney), Mike Anderton (Jefferson County Assistant District Attorney), and John Carroll (Dean of the Cumberland School of Law). Working with student groups will be school resource officers, police officers and teachers trained in the Play by the Rules program, and Samford University students.

 

ACLCE is a nonprofit corporation located at Cumberland School of Law on the campus of Samford University.  It provides access to educational resources, professional development opportunities for teachers and community training.  Since its inception ACLCE has served as Alabama’s only non-partisan organization dedicated to teaching civic knowledge, skills and responsibilities.