ABOUT US:

message from the director

Passion

In 2000, the ACLU of Wisconsin Foundation founded the Youth and Civil Liberties Council (YCLC) to empower Wisconsin youth by increasing knowledge and skills of their rights and responsibilities.

The work of the YCLC focuses on engaging young people on their terms, allowing their passion to guide positive action, whether it is to discuss discipline policy changes in their school or to author recommendations on how to repair police-youth relations in their community.

Reason

The YCLC’s ability to appeal to the life experiences of diverse youth has been a cornerstone of its success. Programs like the statewide “The Other America Tour” and regional “Youth Government Day” offer information and structure, but utilize the expression and sense of adventure that are signature to young people. Providing forums to address social justice and civic involvement, respectively, these programs have worked directly with over 7,500 Wisconsin youth and as many as 100 schools since 2000.

But that's just the beginning.

The YCLC has become a state and nationally-recognized model for successful youth empowerment. As we look to the future, we are inspired by the work of other individuals, organizations and coalitions that advances youth issues and strengthened by the hope we see in the thousands of dedicated young people who are the next generation of liberty.