our mission

Language has the power to make others feel included, seen and empowered. But for that to be a reality, we have to actively and attentively change the way that we communicate. Gender-inclusive language is not something that has been normalized or taught in our educational system, so it is up to us to UN-learn gendered and exclusionary language.
But, why does this matter? Words are just, well, words. Not so much.

The statistics drew me in: students who can’t read by the end of third grade are 4x more likely to drop out of school (Annie E. Casey Foundation). Students who do not learn to read proficiently by the end of third grade almost never catch up in school. I wanted to do something to help, and CYC’s Colorado Reading Corps program allowed me to take action.

Futures Academy, a Colorado Youth for a Change program within Aurora Public Schools, recently held its Recognition Ceremony to honor student accomplishment. It’s an amazing day and it’s hard to describe the excitement. Especially moving is the fact that many of these students had, at one point, given up the hope of accomplishing anything academically.