Amplify Youth Voices Every Tuesday

Hreehaan is one of millions of middle schoolers that has endured bullying at his school. Rather than absorbing the pain of being bullied, Hreehan participated in Do The Write Thing by publishing his essay on solutions to stop youth violence. He and his peers put their words into action and created a club that promotes anti bullying. His courage didn’t just change his life, it’s helped shift the culture in his school.   

Inspired by Hrehaan? So are we! We’re on a mission to elevate youth voices by building the first-ever national database on youth violence, filled with powerful stories and actionable solutions from young people just like Hrehaan beacause no student should fear walking through their own neighborhood or going to school, yet nearly 60% of American teens report being worried about a mass shooting at school, and youth violence is a daily reality for many.

At DtWT we're committed to changing this through our Pen to Platform Initiative—a national effort to collect and digitize over two decades of student writings on the root causes and solutions to youth violence.

Our goal is to build a comprehensive, searchable database of essays written by middle school students from across the country, allowing users to explore stories by city, type of violence, and proposed solutions. These powerful narratives will shine a light on the everyday challenges our youth face and provide real, actionable solutions to reduce violence in our communities.

Thanks to all of you who contributed to our $2 Tuesday fundraising campaign (Oct 29 - Dec 17 2024), we are taking big steps towards building safer future for our youth and will roll out the Pen to Platform Initiative in 3 phases. More information regarding the phase roll outs coming soon.

Thank you for joining us in turning the words of our youth into action.

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