1. Rhyme and Reason
2. Who We Serve
3. Our Impact
4. Leadership Team

WE NURTURE CHILDREN FOR SUCCESS

Our vision is to bring to fruition a world where children from all backgrounds have access to artistic expression and nurturing for academic success.

Our mission, at its best, is to fortify essential literacy skills for marginalized youth through the arts, specifically poetry, to help them better navigate academic and social challenges.

WE’RE FORTUNATE TO GIVE VOICE TO SOME INCREDIBLE KIDS!

Most of our participants are socio-economically disadvantaged and attend Title 1 schools, where 40% of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals.

Who they are: vulnerable youth needing encouragement, support, inspiration, enhancement opportunities, and recognition for their artistic talents.

WE PARTNER WITH SCHOOLS, LIBRARIES, ARTISTS, AND EDUCATORS

Annually, we implement high-quality youth enrichment programs. For example, we have provided 3,500-plus additional educational instruction hours for marginalized students after school. In addition, we have published eight anthologies of original poems written by 3rd through 12th students living in North Texas. As a result, the confidence, vocabulary, reading comprehension, and creative writing skills of 92% of our program participants improved.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS

• TYDF poetry curriculum noted for Best Practices in 2007-2008 Texas A & M University evaluation report.
• TYDF received the Outstanding Service Provider Award from the FWISD Fort Worth After School Program.  
• We published kids’ poems alongside Dr. Maya Angelou’s poetry in our first anthology.
• TYDF youth performed at the 21st Century Community Learning Centers 2015 Summer Institute Conference presented by the US Board of Education, where 1600 educators and administrators attended.
• TYDF poetry students have performed at several Fort Worth City Mayfest.
• TYDF students’ poetry performance received 457,127 views on YouTube in December 2014.
• In 2018, TYDF poets performed at the FWISD & TCU Racial Equity Summit at Texas Christian University.
• In 2020, TYDF launched its virtual learning poetry and literacy program serving marginalized students at 15 FWISD Title 1 schools.
• In April 2022, TYDF conducted its 14th annual citywide Voice2Youth Poetry Slam at the historic I.M. Terrell Academy for STEM and VPA.