The Center for Law and Society at Community College of Philadelphia welcomed nearly 100 young people and staff from EducationWorks for the citywide Project Citizen Showcase that culminated EducationWorks' summer service learning program on Wednesday, August 12th. 

Keith Bailey, EducationWorks Youthworks Coordinator, opened the program by thanking the participants for their work on Project Citizen, a portfolio-based civic education curriculum designed to help young people make a difference in their communities through civic action.  Students identify a problem of public concern, research the problem, brainstorm solutions, determine a solution worthy of being implemented and then develop an action plan to implement their selected solution.

Although the majority of the portfolio presentations at CCP focused on aspects of the literacy problem the young people had been dealing with all summer as they worked with elementary age summer campers, there was a range of project topics on display including aids education, anti-gun violence programs, and recycling efforts.  David Trevaskis, President of the Pennsylvania Council for the Social Studies and the Pro Bono Coordinator of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, noted that "these young people were inspiring in their creativity and hope as they tackled wide ranging problems in our community."  Joining Trevaskis in evaluating the showcase portfolios and asking questions of the participants were legislative aides Denise and Sabrina Holloway from Representative Dwight Evans' office and attorney and retired principal Alan Liebowitz who teaches for CCP.

Project Citizen is a Keystone Education Program of the Pennsylvania Coalition for Representative Democracy, the civics initiative of Pennsylvania First Lady and Third Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Midge Rendell.  PC is coordinated in Pennsylvania through the freedoms Foundation of Valley Forge.