Every year, the Citizen Advocacy Center takes on interns from law school, college, and high school to investigate citizen reports of apparent illegal, democratic public policies and obstacles to civic participation. Interning with the Citizen Advocacy Center is an excellent way to learn about how government really works, and to develop an array of skills that are useful to good citizenship and to the practice of law including:
- how to research and make sense of state statutes and local codes;
- how to document facts;
- how to make government and the law work for citizens;
- how to make requests for government information;
- how to conduct interviews; and
- how to coordinate press and publicly release information
What issues do our interns work on?
- government audits,
- Illinois election code,
- TIF (tax increment financing) districts,
- local government,
- educational brochures,
- answering citizen intake questions,
- case briefings,
- youth civic education,
- democracy workshops,
- litigation, local zoning,
- government information,
- conducting interviews,
- coordinating press releases,
- public speaking, and much more.
Why should you care?
Well, these are the future lawyers, judges, public officials, journalists, police officers, and more. The Citizen Advocacy Center is a way to open their eyes to the issues from the other side. The local citizens and residents who are working to building great communities.
All rights reserved.