CDF Freedom Schools National Social Action Day: I'm Stepping Up For Children

This week is a very important one as every 3rd Wednesday of July, the Children Defense Fund Freedom Schools program conducts the National Social Action Day. For those who never heard of Freedom Schools, you are really missing out! Freedom Schools is a reading enrichment program created by the Children Defense Fund (see my blog called What Brand Am I to get the full effect of the program) to motivate children to fall in love with reading and being able to learn critical thinking skills.

Now, since there is a little recap or introduction into the program, we can talk about the National Social Action Day. The importance of Social Action to the Freedom Schools model is to teach children to take a positive role in the issues that affect their communities. Some would probably ask, "What can children do to make a huge difference in their communities?" The answer to that is  A LOT!!! Children from a young age to college students have made a positive impact in history on social issues such as Little Rock 9, the Freedom Riders, and various Civil Rights groups.

In Freedom School, the children, which are referred to as Scholars, are taught to strive above the "norm" for students. These Scholars definitely achieve this goal when they continue the legacy of fighting for equality on social issues such as healthcare coverage, education, poverty, and incarceration issues.

On July 13th, there will be thousands of children nationwide from big cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and New York to small cities such as Bennettsville, SC, and Tulsa, Ok, that will participating in the this amazing event. There will be marches, chants, and a huge amount of taking a stand for a common cause in their communities.

Here is a promo video of this year's National Social Action Day theme

After watching the video, I hope you have an urge to want to make a positive impact and that you ask yourself, "How can I be apart of this huge event?" If this question comes to your mind and you are in Milwaukee then you can answer that question! Urban Roots CDF Freedom School is one of the 130 sites around the nation and the ONLY site in the state of Wisconsin. This site's existence has been 3 years and has made a great change in the Harambee Community of Milwaukee. This Wednesday at 12pm-2:30pm, Urban Roots will be having a National Social Action Day event at 2600 N. 2nd St. to take action on the educational problems happening not just in the country, but specifically in Wisconsin. There are many budget cuts that have happened (thanks to a certain beloved Governor) which has and will affect the future of education in this state. With the budget cuts, teachers have lost jobs, college students have lost grants and added more debt on top of their loans, and not to mention some public schools have closed.

We all need to take a stand and say we CAN'T and WON'T allow this to happen because all children need education.

Here's a flyer for the Urban Roots CDF Freedom School National Social Action Day event