What happens when young people realize their stories matter?
You get poetry, you get power, and you get a ripple effect that starts in the classroom and spreads across entire communities.
We’re honored to announce Words To Power as one of our newest Kindness Grant recipients. Based in Denver, this incredible initiative helps young people turn lived experience into creative expression, inviting them to write, speak, and be seen through the art of poetry.
With help from a $1,000 Kindness Grant, Words To Power will publish and distribute three books of poetry written by 239 students from 12 schools across the Denver metro area. Each young poet will receive copies of the book and select contributors will receive a small stipend to perform their work at a live summer book release event, offering them a public platform to share their voice with pride and purpose.
This year’s project theme, “We Are the Dreams of Our Ancestors,” invites students to reflect on where they come from, honor the resilience in their lineage, and explore how their own words can become tools for healing and change. It’s a theme rooted in identity and hope—two powerful forces for youth who often don’t get the chance to see their voices reflected in the world around them.
The Kindness Grant will help fund one of these community celebration events, as well as provide printed books and t-shirts for the student authors. But the impact goes far beyond what’s on the page. As students share their work onstage, they’re also shaping how they see themselves and how others see them too. One Words To Power participant put it best:
“I learned that I have the power within me and to not be afraid to express it.” -Emily (12th grade)
That kind of confidence is contagious. And when students are given the space to speak honestly, be heard fully, and lead with creativity, it plants the seeds for something bigger: stronger mental health, stronger community connections, and stronger belief in what’s possible.
At the TDB Family Foundation, we support projects that Amplify Voices of Youth, create Pathways to Mental Health Resiliency, and help Build Thriving Communities. Words To Power beautifully embodies all three. It shows us that kindness can take many forms: a poem, a book, a microphone, a round of applause… and that every young person deserves to know their voice matters.
We’re so proud to support this incredible program, and we can’t wait to celebrate these student authors as they share their words with the world.
➡️ Want to hear more from Words To Power? Follow along at wordstopower.org and on Instagram @wordstopower
➡️ Got a kindness project of your own? Apply for a $1,000 Kindness Grant at tdbff.org/kindness-grants
Photo Courtesy of Words to Power