Founded | 1994 |
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Type | Non-profit |
Focus | Violence reduction |
Location |
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Website | http://www.dtwt.org/ |
The Do the Write Thing Challenge (or DtWT) is a writing program for junior high students organized by the U.S. National Campaign to Stop Violence.[1][2][3] Intended to reduce youth violence, the Do the Write Thing Essay Challenge Program began in 1994 as a local program in Washington, D.C. and expanded in 1996 to other cities.[4][5][6] According to Dr. Hassan Al-Ebraheem, founder and chairman of the Kuwait-America Foundation, the program has reached over 1.6 million children (as of July 2013) across the country since its foundation.[7]
Aimed at middle school students, one of the program's primary objectives is to motivate students to make a personal commitment, in writing, to help prevent and reduce youth violence in their home, school, and communities.[8][9][10] The students are then asked to address these three questions in an essay for submission:[11][12]
After this, a panel, usually composed of volunteers or school staff, reads the essays and chooses "school finalists".[4][10][13] These “school finalists” continue on to a broader selection that is citywide.[2][3][10][13][14] Each year, two finalists from each city—one boy and one girl—along with their teacher and parent, are honored at a national recognition ceremony in Washington, DC.[12][15] While in Washington, DC, the DTWT National Ambassadors visit the United States Library of Congress, The United States Supreme Court, the United States Capitol and the Kuwait Embassy.[16][17] Their essays are published in one volume, which is then presented to the Library of Congress.[4][10][18]
The Challenge is the idea of Daniel Q. Callister, a Washington lawyer who says its purpose is four-fold: to provide children who have experienced or seen violence with a cathartic experience; to give them motivation to change their behavior; to be an education experience for teachers and the community; and to get adults to help solve the problem.[1][4]
Sponsors of "Do the Write Thing" include: