Do the Write Thing Challenge Program is sponsored by the National Campaign to Stop Violence. This program motivates students to make a personal, written commitment to resist and combat youth violence in their communities. Young people around the country are encouraged to voice their solutions for reducing the violence that destroys so many young lives. The program works because it recognizes that the best solutions come from the communities where the violence takes place. The Do the Write Thing Challenge goes far beyond writing.
Students form a powerful connection with national, community, and business leaders.
These leaders sponsor Community Peace Partnerships that provide opportunities, such as job-training internships, for students. By exchanging ideas with partnership leaders, students use education rather than violence to solve life's challenges. Ten cities and 20 National Guard sites now participate in the Do the Write Thing Challenge Program, representing 23 States. Seventh and eighth graders from inner-city public schools write essays on what they can do about the violence in their communities. Local judges choose from thousands of student responses, and the National Campaign to Stop Violence flies two winners, a boy and a girl from each city, to Washington, DC, for a National Recognition Weekend.