The Illinois First Amendment Center (IFAC) had its beginnings in February 2002 when it received a grant from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation to fund a part of the “First Amendment: Keep It Strong” (KIS) campaign. Also in 2002, the IFAC received an additional grant from the National Freedom of Information Coalition. With these two grants and additional funds from Lee Enterprises, the “Keep It Strong” campaign was begun.
IFAC Mission Statement
The IFAC commissioned HIP Advertising of Springfield, Illinois to handle the creative work necessary to carry out the First Amendment educational goals and objectives. Next, the “Keep It Strong” educational and promotional campaign was unveiled on May 13th, 2003 at the Newspaper in Education Association national conference in Chicago. This curriculum was developed by Randy Swikle, an award-winning journalism teacher from Johnsburg, Illinois, and included a teacher’s guide, a pre- and post-test, and the legal licensing agreements. After its debut at the May 2003 NIE conference, the IFAC began receiving orders for this curriculum.
Actual staffing of IFAC occurred in October 2004. Prior to that, the IFAC work was carried out by Dave Bennett - IPA’s Executive Director; Beth Bennett - IPA’s Director of Government Relations; and supportive help from other IPA staff. In October 2004, IFAC acquired its first official outreach coordinator to promote, market, educate and facilitate all outreach projects associated with the Illinois First Amendment Center. It soon became clear that the work of the IFAC was bigger than just one staff person. On February 1, 2005, Sue Montalvo joined IFAC as Project Director to oversee all activities of the Center.
In January 2005, the Knight Foundation released results from a two-year survey it had conducted at 544 high schools across the country involving more than 100,000 students regarding their understanding of, and attitudes about, the First Amendment. Some alarming findings came out of this survey indicating that teens lacked an appreciation and understanding of the First Amendment. In May of 2005, Congress mandated that every school and college that receives federal money must teach about the Constitution on September 17 of each year – the day the document was adopted in 1787. This mandate covers kindergarten through college. As a direct result of the Knight Foundation survey results and the federal mandate, IFAC set out to create a variety of meaningful educational materials for Kindergarten through 12th grade.
In March 2005, the IFAC sponsored a curriculum development conference during which 16 Illinois teachers joined together to create a new comprehensive First Amendment curriculum guide. In 2006, a similar conference was held to create a guide for grades 5, 6 and 7. Also in 2006, the IFAC developed its First Amendment video, 5 separate coloring books (one book for each of grades K – 4), flash cards and posters for the elementary grades. In 2007, the IFAC added a First Amendment video for grades 9 – 12, and translated all of its print materials into Spanish.
The following FREE materials are available to order from this Web site (nominal shipping and handling fees apply).
- Constitution / First Amendment Coloring & Activity Books
in English & Spanish (side by side) for Grades K & 1.
- Constitution / First Amendment Coloring & Activity Books
for Grades 2, 3 & 4 – available in English and Spanish
- Constitution / First Amendment Flash Cards
for Grades 2 – 6 – available in English and Spanish
- Constitution Day Video on DVD
(4 minutes) for Grades 2 – 6 (English)
- Constitution / First Amendment Curriculum & Activity Guide
for Grades 5, 6 & 7 – available in English and Spanish
- First Amendment Posters
– set of 5 for Grades K – 8 – available in English & Spanish
- First Amendment Posters
– set of 4 for Grades 8 – Adult – available in English & Spanish
- First Amendment Teen Video on DVD
(14 minutes) for grades 9-12 (English)
- First Amendment TV spots
– four 30-second PSAs on DVD
- First Amendment Radio spots on CD
- First Amendment Newspaper Print Campaign on CD
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"Voices for the 1st", "Give Me 5", "Keep It Strong", and "Uno" related logos,
animations, artwork, music and recordings are copyrighted trademarks of the
Illinois First Amendment Center. Unauthorized duplication of written and
recorded materials are a violation of applicable laws.
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