826 National and Cartoon Network believe students have the power and perspective to end a pervasive culture of bullying, and that those perspectives should be heard on a national scale. To that end, the two partners launched the Inclusion Storytelling Project, which encourages youth across the country to share their individual stories about kindness and empathy in an effort to stop bullying before it starts.
Hundreds of students from the 826 Network participated in the project, and the students’ fiction and nonfiction stories will be compiled into eight illustrated publications. Each of the 826 Network chapters will host a local book release event, during which these young authors will share their work with the community.
On December 7, 2017, 826LA celebrated the release of their Inclusion Storytelling Project publications. Students like Yatzel, pictured above, shared their opinions on why it’s important to show kindness, while other students told origin stories from the perspective of a bully or villain to inspire compassion in their readers.
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Finally, students joined forces to become the Anti-Bullying Avengers, writing collaborative stories about how average people can become heroes by standing up to bullies, or how bullies can resolve to become kinder souls. Students approached the topic of bullying from all angles, but the common thread throughout each story was acceptance.
To expand the reach of this partnership and inspire other kids to share their stories, the lessons created through the project will also be made available to teachers everywhere in 2018 via 826 Digital, the 826 National’s pay-what-you-wish online platform of resources for educators.
See more photos from the book release here.
Read an excerpt of student writing and click the links to purchase the books below.
A Kid Who Wanted To Be Good
By: Arturo A., Grade 4
Once upon a time, there was a kid who wanted to be good, but people thought he was bad. So he started to do good. He helped clean up trash and collect recycling. But people still thought he was bad. So he started to clean up trash every day so that people would accept him. But people still did not give him a chance. So three weeks later they started to believe him and they accepted him.
He was Darth Vader’s son.
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A Friend That Will Never Be Called Enemy [/ezcol_1half]
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Sorry, Can We Be Friends? [/ezcol_1half_end]
Other projects from the Inclusion Storytelling Project include…
Big Class—the future 826 New Orleans—published a classroom of third
graders who reimagined what should replace the city’s recently removed Confederate monuments.
On December 6, 2017, 826michigan published a Zine entitled, I’m Going to be Unique and Kind, I Told Myself.
