"My thing is...No matter how far you are behind, you can always get ahead."
- Jabari Mason, Math Literacy Worker, Michigan

Dear Friends and Supporters:

I’d like to take a moment to share why The Young People's Project (YPP) inspires me. As a founder and National Director of YPP I am grateful to be a part of a community that I have helped to create and which has shaped who I am today. Our members embody the idea of investing in young people who invest in each other through a commitment to learning, teaching, leading and organizing.

YPP inpires me because we:

• use math to create meaningful work experiences for 500 high school and college students, who create high quality learning experiences for over 5,000 elementary and middle school students annually;

• organically grew from one school to thirteen cities -- Chicago (IL), Cambridge and Boston (MA), Jackson, Shaw and Duck Hill (MS), Los Angeles (CA), Miami (FL), Detroit and Ypsilanti (MI), Mansfield (OH), New Orleans (LA) and Hamilton College (Utica);

• are part of a network of students, parents, communities, organizations and institutions who are working to build consensus that students and families have a constitutional right to a high quality education.

We believe the kind of systemic change necessary to prepare our young people for the demands of the twenty-first century requires young people to take the lead in changing it. –Bob Moses

I am inspired by Jabari and the students who, no matter how far behind they start, are working together to get ahead by investing in themselves and each other. Young people who appear to be stuck by the circumstances of their birth and the environments they’ve inherited, are using math and media to find, gather and amplify their voices and create experiences and spaces for learning, teaching, leading and organizing. They are preparing themselves to be among society's changemakers and innovators as they discover their own pathway to success and contribute to reshaping our communities and shaping our collective future.

Help us reach our goal of 1000 new donors in the next 60 days, by supporting young people who are committed to their own Education and helping others learn, who have created a national Network and are Building Community, and who through Policy and Advocacy are challenging our education system to work for all children.

My YPP story began at birth. I inherited the legacy of my parents (Janet and Bob Moses) and grew up connected to the stories and people who worked in the freedom movement of the 60's. I was inspired by their struggle to make a way, many times out of no way, for themselves and each other-- challenging their communities and the country to live up to its highest ideals. Every young person enters YPP with a story. Through our YPP experience we are creating new stories for ourselves and with each other. Through our YPP experience we are shaping and reshaping our stories and expanding the possibilities for ourselves, our communities and our country.

Please join me in sharing the YPP experience -- a space to discover and raise questions, to share our stories and find our individual and collective voice, to offer a series of challenges to ourselves, our communities and our country that seek to enable us to live up to our promise and possibility. We need your help to reach our goal of 1,000 new donors, investing at all levels to support YPP’s current and future learners, teachers, leaders and organizers.

Help us Raise the Educational Floor for all children in America by making a contribution to our Year End Campaign Today!

National Director
The Young People's Project