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 Children's Defense Fund (CDF) Freedom Schools® Sponsor Application for New Partners

Application Deadline: September 30, 2024 
                                                      Nonrefundable Application Fee: $175

The CDF Freedom Schools program partners with organizations to sponsor high-quality comprehensive programming for children and families in local communities across the country.  Sponsor organizations are responsible for securing the financial resources to operate program sites at no cost to families and paying fees to the Children's Defense Fund to offset program costs.


A CDF Freedom Schools Sponsor Application cannot be reviewed until the application fee has successfully processed. All applicants can submit their application fee by ACH or credit card. If you would like to request an invoice for your application fee, please email Mary Fennell at mfennell@childrensdefense.org. 


Ella Baker Child Policy Training Institute Orientation and Trainings
For the 2025 year, all orientation and training meetings will be in-person and virtual. All in-person training sessions will be held at CDF Haley Farm and the Knoxville Convention Center. 

All program staff must participate in mandatory trainings as outlined by the CDF Freedom Schools program calendar. Implementing a CDF Freedom Schools program with staff who have not been trained by CDF is a violation of the licensing agreement and copyright protections attending to the CDF Freedom Schools model.
Orientation and Training 

Required Participants

Dates

Executive Director and Project Director Orientation and Training (In-person)

Executive Directors (ED)

Project Directors (PD)

January 24-26, 2025

Site Coordinator Orientation and Training (Virtual) 

Site Coordinators (SC)

March 20-23, 2025

National Training (In-person) 

Site Coordinators

Servant Leader Interns (SLI)

June 3-8, 2025 
The Executive Director and Project Director Orientation and Training will be in-person at CDF Haley Farm for first-and second-year Executive Directors and Project Director. Directors who have served longer than two years will not be invited to attend in person. Instead, they will be given access to pertinent virtual content. Those still wishing to attend in person will be assessed the additional person fee of $900, pending space availability. CDF Freedom Schools program fees will cover the cost of lodging, meals, and round-trip ground transportation for first-and second-year Executive Directors and Project Director. Site Coordinator Orientation and Training will be a fully virtual institute with both synchronous and asynchronous content. All registered Site Coordinators will have access to training through our virtual attendee hub. All first-and second-year Site Coordinators must attend live. This training is mandatory as outlined in the licensing agreement. National Training for Site Coordinators and Servant Leader Interns will be in-person for first-and second-year Servant Leader Interns ONLY and all Site Coordinators. For National Training, CDF will provide complimentary round-trip ground transportation to and from the airport, and CDF Haley Farm, from CDF Freedom Schools official hotels within the reserved block. CDF will also cover the costs of all lunches and three out of four dinners during training dates. All CDF Freedom Schools sponsoring organizations will be responsible for transportation to and from Tennessee, booking hotel rooms, and securing meals outside of training hours (e.g., breakfast, meals on designated travel days). The CDF Freedom Schools National Office will provide details on registration and room blocks. This training is mandatory as outlined in the licensing agreement.  

Section I: Applicant Information

Thank you for your interest in partnering with CDF Freedom Schools® for 2025. Please proceed with the application.


This application is only for new or inactive partners. Since you operated a CDF Freedom Schools® program in 2023 and/or 2024 or applied to do so, please complete the returning sponsor application using the following link instead: https://tfaforms.com/5078974

Please provide billing address for the sponsor organization


Staff Roles:
The person who is primarily responsible for the CDF Freedom Schools (CDFFS) program in your organization and will be the primary point of contact, is deemed the CDFFS Executive Director (ED).

Each organization must determine who will serve as their ED. Only one person may hold the role. If you are from an organization that has a main leader (President, CEO, Executive Director, Principal, Superintendent, Senior Pastor, etc.) with subordinates, the main leader does NOT have to also serve as the ED. Please keep this in mind, to structure your local program optimally. 

The contact information asks for years of service directly related to the CDF Freedom Schools program, NOT to your organization in general.
Contact 1:
mm/dd/yyyy

Contact 2
mm/dd/yyyy

Section II: Program & Site Information
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Must be a number value
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Section III: National Operational Fees Payable to CDF

For 2025, the following fees are due to the Children's Defense Fund: 

  • Application Fee - $175
  • National Program Operation Fee - $285 per scholar 
  • Registration Fee for Non-required Program Staff (if applicable) - $900 per person 
  • Late Registrant Training Fee (if applicable) - $50 per person 

It is mandatory for all required CDF Freedom Schools program staff to receive training through the Ella Baker Child Policy Training Institute. Please note, sponsor organizations will be assessed an additional fee of $900 for each non-required training attendee. An additional fee of $50 will be assessed onto all late registrations. 


Every sponsoring organization should have an Executive Director (ED) and a Project Director (PD). The same person may serve as the ED and PD. You can sponsor multiple CDF Freedom Schools sites across your community, but each site must have a minimum of 30 scholars to be considered 1 site. Each site is required to have 1 Site Coordinator (SC).


For larger sites, additional SCs may be needed. See the chart below for a breakdown of the recommended number of SCs and the required number Servant Leader Interns (SLI) at a site.

Any program staff beyond these allowances are considered non-required staff. Therefore, a $900 registration fee will be applied per non-required staff member. 

breakdown

Short Answer Response

Section IV: Signature
CDF Freedom Schools
Central Gulf Coast CDF Freedom Schools Program on the National Day of Social Action. 
After you click the Submit button you must review your completed application and then confirm the submission. It is recommended that you use the "Print this page" button at the bottom of the screen to print or save a PDF copy for your records. 
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