Jefferson Educational Society

The Jefferson Educational Society of Erie (JES) is a non-profit institution founded to promote civic enlightenment, and community progress for the Erie Region through the study, research, discussion, of those ideas and events that have influenced the human condition. The Society, therefore, will offer courses, seminars, and lectures which explain the central ideas which have formed the past, assist in exploring the present, and offer guidance to enhance the civic future of the Erie Region.

As an Erie ‘Think-Tank,’ the Jefferson Educational Society will further promote academic knowledge and civic pride through institutional and familial research, the publication of policy papers on public issues, and the sponsorship of civic forums for the understanding of community problems. The Society also will sponsor a bi-annual conference to study not only the ‘state of Erie City and County’ but also the urban practices which have proven most successful in the great cities of the Nation.