In the past 20 months, all of humanity has had to grow and adapt in order to keep going. In March 2020, YWSTL had to quickly grow from 2.5 hours of tutoring per week to 3 hours of virtual tutoring per day. We've since quadrupled our tutoring pool, created a training app, learned how to provide in-house training to become trauma-informed, switched all of our programming to be virtual or hybrid, developed a semester of outdoor workshops, created 6 new programming partners, developed 3 new programs for college and graduate students, hired 2 part-time staff members and 2 new teachers, brought on 4 volunteer interns, created a new podcast, and earned 6 grant awards. (Our Executive Director and his wife also had a baby!)

Our world is only demanding more adaptations, whether that's in the form of innovation, reconstruction, or rest. The young people with whom YWSTL works need more now than ever. And the educational landscape has even steeper cliffs and ravines. Yet I see, first hand, compassionate and courageous youth growing into wiser humans than their leaders.

If you'd like to help us through this time of necessary growing, here's some quick and easy ways:
- Donate to our campaign above.
- Share our campaign with just 1 or 1000 of your friends.
- Volunteer as a tutor, email [email protected] to sign up.

With gratitude,
Anna Ojascastro Guzon MD, MFA
Co-founder, Program Director

YourWords STL is a 501(c)3 non-profit that uses tutoring, creative writing workshops, and collaborative projects to help amplify the voices of St. Louis youth. We are committed to bridging racial, cultural, and economic divides, by honing the ability of people to tell their stories, while providing opportunities for the community to listen.