Presenter: Yolanda Johnson, Director of Legal Life Skills at Street Law, Inc.
About the Session:
Street Law, Inc. will utilize Power Point slides and interactive discussion to demonstrate how the Legal Life Skills program partners with organizations and agencies to empower society’s most vulnerable people with the legal knowledge and civic skills needed to succeed as adults, combat inequality, and participate effectively in their communities. Street Law, Inc. will discuss the history of the organization, introduce participants to the Legal Life Skills curriculum, and provide a step-by-step guide on how to implement the Legal Life Skills program in classroom and community settings. Each participant will receive a complimentary lesson that will afford them the opportunity to pilot the Legal Life Skills curriculum within a classroom or community-based setting.
Participants in this session will learn:
- about the history of Street Law, Inc. and its work with vulnerable populations.
- how legal and civic education can add value to the programs and services that agencies provide to their participants.
- how to identify the components of an effective legal and civic education program.
- about the guiding pillars that equip vulnerable populations with the tools needed to advocate for themselves and have agency over their own life.
- how the Legal Life Skills program can be utilized as a professional development opportunity.
This session provides participants with an innovative and collective impact approach that helps professionals contribute to the mission of American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences to
“assist individuals, families, and communities in making informed decisions about their well-being, relationships, and resources to achieve optimal quality of life.” Participants will gain knowledge of a tool that is easy to integrate into an established program model, provides a professional development opportunity, and increases the likelihood of success for an agencies’ students or clients.
About the Presenter(s):
Yolanda Johnson is an expert in designing and delivering education programs for underserved youth and adults. She leads Street Law’s Legal Life Skills Program, which targets vulnerable populations that often lack civic and law-related learning opportunities. Yolanda also heads up Street Law’s Police & Teens Program, which is working to improve relationships between police officers and young people, and she has trained volunteer legal professionals from across the country to participate in the Legal Diversity Pipeline Programs.
Yolanda has more than 20 years of experience working with young people. Prior to Street Law, she worked on vocational education in the state of New York, including training students with behavioral challenges and students who were pregnant or parenting. She also worked in the State of Maryland's juvenile justice system, serving in several roles including as assistant regional director in Baltimore City.