This city is my home and the young people of DC are my heart. That’s why I am so honored to lead this organization encouraging and amplifying the voices, stories, and dreams of our city’s young people. That’s also why I want to thank you for supporting 826DC and the students, teachers, and families we serve.

You’ve helped sustain 826DC as the affirming, warm, and open space that it is, where young people grow,  try new things, and are both heard and celebrated for their ideas, where our students get to have fun strengthening their writing skills, to access opportunities that wouldn’t otherwise be available and, perhaps most importantly,  to build the unique confidence that comes from knowing the power of your voice.

I’d like to tell you about three aspects of 826DC’s work that mean a lot to me:

DC students’ literacy skills haven’t yet rebounded from pandemic learning loss, and that is particularly true for students of color, English Language learners, and students from under-resourced communities!  Writing instruction is a key tool to increase overall literacy, build critical thinking skills, and equip students with important tools for college and careers.  It’s simply inequitable and unjust to leave so many young people without access to the skills and the tools that they need to succeed.

Each week, 826DC proudly works with hundreds of underserved or otherwise marginalized students to close those gaps through free, innovative, student-centered, and skill-based writing programs. And it’s working!

The last few years have been complicated, to say the least. Writing can help us all heal from difficult moments in our lives, process our emotions, and make sense of our experiences. It’s especially powerful for young people, who have far less say over what happens in their day-to-day lives than adults do. Writing helps our students explore on their terms and create worlds where they get to decide what happens next.

Last school year, 826DC students wrote about their perfect society, penned letters to city officials about changes they wanted to see in their community, and developed fictional heroes to save the day!  Each of these writing experiences helped our students connect with their feelings, hone their social-emotional learning skills, and take control of their narratives through the art of storytelling.

This year, through our new Book Distribution Program, we sent 200+ copies of 826DC student-written books to DC public schools, along with specialized curriculum to help educators use those books as mentor texts. Last year, we also partnered with the DC Public Library to introduce 13 of those 826DC books into circulation. Now anyone in the District can access their words for free.

All of these things have been possible because of supporters like you.

If you’d like to help 826DC keep this good work going, please consider  donating. Together, there’s no limit to what we can do for this next sensational, creative, brilliant, vibrant generation of writers!

I look forward to meeting more of you in the months and years to come.

A GIFT

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