Constitutional Rights Foundation Orange County

Our mission is to inspire Orange County students through civics and educational experiences.  We do this through our programs which engage and empower over 5,000 youth each year to become active, responsible members and leaders in our community.  We are dedicated to allowing teens to explore opportunities, develop life skills, succeed in mastering academic standards, and gain the confidence to be productive members of the community. We fill a critical need for civics education for middle and high school students.  

CRF-OC has operated continuously in Orange County since 1981. We are a local, non-partisan, nonprofit organization. We fill a critical need for civics education for Orange County middle and high school students.  Our six interactive programs are positive, motivating experiences that allow teens to explore their potential, prepare to face new challenges, and contribute their unique talents as future leaders of their communities.   We work with volunteers from the local business,  education, and legal communities, as well as partner organizations including the Orange County Superior Court and the Orange County Department of Education. Our civic, law, and business related education programs are not offered by any other organization in Orange County.  The programs include: (1) Mock Trial - a law related academic competition where students use a hypothetical criminal case to prepare for and conduct a trial in actual courtrooms before actual judges, (2) Peer Court - a juvenile diversion program where cases are heard by a peer jury and a sitting judge, (3) Middle School Moot Court - an oral advocacy competition where students present legal arguments and answer a judge's questions regarding a hypothetical case and legal issue, (4) Law Day - a one-day conference that challenges students to consider and debate controversial legal issues, (5) Constitution Day - an outreach program where volunteer attorneys and judges present an interactive lesson in classrooms across Orange County focused on the U.S. Constitution, and (6) Orange County Career Forum - a one-day conference that links high school students with local business professionals and community leaders as they explore diverse career opportunities and pathways. 

In the past year, we have helped address the critical need for civic learning in in secondary education, helped students develop academic and leadership skills, and increased student understanding, interest and appreciation for our judicial system and government institutions.  We have done this through our six interactive education programs:  Mock Trial, Peer Court, Middle School Moot Court, Orange County Career Forum Conference, Law Day Conference and Constitution Day.  Our top goals for the current year are to: (1) successfully operate our programs, (2) diversify our funding sources, (3) expand our Middle School Moot Court competition, and (4) continue to strengthen the engagement of younger legal and business professionals in our programs through our Associate Board. 

CRF-OC offers several opportunities for local companies to sponsor CRF-OC individual programs, our special events or our work as a whole.  For more information, please visit:  www.crfoc.org(http://www.crfoc.org).  1. We need to find additional funding sources.  Civics education is crucial to the continued success of our society, yet funding is scarce when compared to other educational areas.  A single foundation provides more funding for STEM based programs than all other funding sources nationwide for civics education.  2. We need additional attorney volunteers to serve as attorney coaches and scorekeepers for our high school mock trial competition. 3.  We need connections to administrators at various high schools and districts throughout Orange County so their students can receive the benefits of participating in our life-changing programs.  4.  We need the financial support to hire additional staff.  We rely heavily on volunteers to make our programs succeed with only 3 staff members.  We would like to add another staff member, but are not in a financial position to do so.

We serve schools and students throughout Orange County.

The focus of CRF-OC is on our interactive, education programs for students.  These programs not only address the need for civic learning in our community, they have tremendous impact on the lives of the teen participants.  We have juveniles who have committed a crime but are given a chance to get their lives back on the right track by participating in our Peer Court program.  But in addition to the juvenile offender, there are 20-40 additional students who participate in the Peer Court session who have a new respect for the justice system and a new understanding of the consequences of their own decisions, behaviors and obligations as a member of the larger community. We have students who participate in Mock Trial who not only gain knowledge of our legal system and democratic institutions, but also improve their public speaking, critical thinking and self-confidence.  For some of these students, Mock Trial exposes them to professional role models and mentors, encouraging them to pursue a college education. There are students who attend Law Day who realize that when faced with controversial issues, people can have opposing views, but they can discuss and debate them in a civil, critical way without resorting to shouting or personal insults. Students attending the Orange County Career Forum are exposed to career fields and pathways they didn't know existed that align with their interests.  The Career Forum gives them the opportunity to interact with a professional in those fields, find out more, and explore the educational pathways they can take to work in their area of interest. Our volunteers are passionate about our programs because they see firsthand the impact on the students' lives.