Community Outreach
The FBI’s Community Outreach Program supports the Bureau’s investigative mission by working to address multiple interrelated societal problems—including crime, drugs, gangs, terrorism, and violence.
Linking community service, prevention, and law enforcement is a national trend spurred by grass roots efforts around the country, and FBI employees have joined this movement, volunteering in a wide variety of community-related efforts.
Outreach Specialist
Community Outreach Team
Columbia_outreach@fbi.gov
The Columbia FBI offers public speakers on a limited basis on a variety of topics pertaining to the Bureau’s investigative mission. All requests for speakers must be submitted online a minimum of 60 days prior to your presentation date. Requests are subject to availability.
The FBI Citizens Academy is an engaging program that gives business, religious, civic, and community leaders an inside look at the FBI. The mission of the FBI Citizens Academy is to foster a greater understanding of the role of federal law enforcement in the community through frank discussion and education.
The FBI Columbia Citizens Academy will be held on Thursday evenings from August 7, 2025 – September 18, 2025, from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in Lexington, South Carolina.
Candidates can be nominated by FBI employees, former Citizen Academy graduates, and community leaders. Participants are selected by the Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the Columbia Field Office.
To Apply
The next FBI Columbia Citizens Academy class will be held August 7, 2025 – September 18, 2025 (Thursday evenings), 4:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. at the FBI Columbia Field Office. The deadline for nomination form submissions is June 1, 2025.
Since 1990, the Director’s Community Leadership Awards has been the principal means for the FBI to publicly recognize achievements of individuals and organizations that make extraordinary contributions to education and the prevention of crime and violence in their communities. Each field office nominates an individual or organization for the award, and, once selected, the recipients are invited to a ceremony and reception at FBI Headquarters.
The Adopt-A-School Program puts FBI special agents and staff members into local schools to mentor and tutor kids. In most cases, our volunteers create programs to help kids learn how to improve academically and become good citizens. They hope, above all, to show kids how to resist bad influences that could lead them to crime, drug use, gang participation, and violence. It goes without saying that our volunteers respect the privacy of the students and their families, and all information is kept confidential.
The FBI Columbia Field Office is currently accepting applications for the FBI Columbia Collegiate Academy.
The FBI Columbia Collegiate Academy is a free program one-day program that affords college students the opportunity to learn about the FBI through demonstrations, hands-on activities, and presentations. Students will have the opportunity to interact with FBI Special Agents, Intelligence Analysts, and Professional Staff. Topics will include FBI careers, cybercrime, SWAT, forensics, civil rights, crisis negotiation, sextortion, and more.
There is a limit on the number of students we can accept into the program, and students will be selected based on their essay submission.
Who May Apply:
SC college or university student
GPA 2.8 or higher
Open to all majors
Date: October 16, 2025
Time: 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Location: Lexington, SC
Deadline: September 5, 2025
We will notify students of their application status by September 15, 2025.
To Apply
Applications for the FBI Columbia Teen Academy are now closed.
Our Teen Academy program allows high school students an opportunity to get a comprehensive look into today’s FBI. Generally, each course iteration is a minimum of eight hours but can be a week-long program with blocks of instruction and demonstrations at a local field office. Students are provided with several presentations on topics including terrorism, cyber crime, public corruption, polygraph exams, evidence response, SWAT, and the day-to-day operations of a typical FBI office. Students also learn from special agents, intelligence analysts, language specialists, and professional staff about investigative tactics that include gathering evidence, interviewing witnesses, and assisting with cases.
The Child ID app—the first mobile application created by the FBI—provides a convenient place to electronically store photos and vital information about your children on your smartphone (note: no information is stored or collected by the FBI). In the event your child goes missing, users can show the pictures and provide physical identifiers such as height and weight to security or police officers on the spot. Using a special tab on the app, users can also quickly and easily e-mail the information to authorities.
The app also includes tips on keeping children safe, as well as specific guidance on what to do in those first few crucial hours after a child goes missing.
The FBI, in partnership with the DEA, created a short documentary focusing on the crisis of prescription drug and opioid abuse. The film, Chasing the Dragon: The Life of an Opiate Addict, outlines the dangerous cycle of opioid and prescription drug abuse—how the problem starts, how the addiction takes hold, and how that addiction damages one’s life and body. High school students and all ages above are the target audience for this video and the curriculum/facilitated discussion that accompanies it.
FBI-SOS is a free, fun, and informative program that promotes cyber citizenship by educating students in third to eighth grades on the essentials of online security. For teachers, the site provides a ready-made curriculum that meets state and federal Internet safety mandates, complete with online testing and a national competition to encourage learning and participation. A secure online system enables teachers to register their schools, manage their classes, automatically grade their students’ exams, and request the test scores.
Anyone—young or old, in the U.S. or worldwide—can complete the activities on the FBI-SOS website. The testing and competition, however, are only open to students in grades 3-8 at public, private, or home schools in the U.S. or its territories.
