CDF Freedom Schools programs are a six-week summer literacy program, developed by the Children’s Defense Fund in 1995, to help increase literacy, self-esteem, socio-emotional skills, and a love of learning in children in children grades K-12. The target audience is low-income, public school children who otherwise may not have access to books and educational enhancement programs during the summer, particularly African-American and Latino children from at-risk communities. The goal is to reduce summer learning loss and break cycles of violence and despair, which disproportionately impact low-income children. The program is named for Freedom Schools developed in Mississippi during the Freedom Summer 1964. 

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