Dear Howard County High School Administrator,
Americans All, a 36-year-old, education-based nonprofit, aims to expand its website to house one of our nation’s most comprehensive and non-political databases of individual and group stories, past and present, about the Peopling of America. To accomplish this, we are in the pilot phase of a community-outreach program that will specifically benefit students—those who participate in non-academic school activities, such as creating online club and team yearbooks and/or publishing their documented and well-written research—and local small businesses and professional service providers by connecting them through a unique storytelling tool and a turnkey revenue generator.
Our storytelling tool is an ideal vehicle to help us all focus on our commonalities rather than our differences. By sharing stories, especially those of immigrants and underserved populations, we recognize the contributions of everyone, while reinforcing the values of diversity, tolerance, acceptance and understanding. People and groups can create and publish stories that can be easily stored, updated and permanently accessed. What makes us unique is the inclusion of historical information to provide context for many of these stories and the experiences, observations, and accomplishments reflected in them.
Lifetime membership in our program is free for individuals, schools and other nonprofits. Businesses and professional service providers pay a nominal fee to publish their stories and can use their stories on our site to reach, and offer discounts to, their customers and clients. We offer our members an optional, inexpensive subscription upgrade to our Social Legacy Network after a free one-year trial period to continue to access these business discounts. Importantly, we return 80 percent of our gross revenue from membership subscriptions and business registration fees to communities that support our program.
All organizations can create a Legacy Partner landing page on our site. This page contains a description of the organization and can host stories from our Heritage Honor Roll created by individuals and groups that are affiliated with the organization. Organizations can create multiple landing pages and they can be published in various languages.
We plan to implement our pilot in high schools in Howard County’ and those in another county to be selected shortly. Using the lessons learned, we will refine the program and begin offering it to all high schools in the State before creating a nationwide rollout. We have received a positive response from the Howard County Economic Development Authority (HCEDA), and our Heritage Honor Roll already contains a story from the Howard County Historical Society. That story is also linked to its Legacy Partner landing page.
Following the recommendation from HCEDA, we have discussed the program with the Howard County Public School System’s Partnerships Office and they offered many suggestions on how to proceed, and importantly, how we needed to modify our website to meet their standards. All suggestions were implemented. In the process, we determined that a school’s point of contact (once the program gains the approval of its principal) will be its Athletics and Activities Manager or a member of his/her staff. We will be contacting PTA’s directly for their support because they are separate from the schools and have their own procedures.
I look forward to hearing back from you to discuss the details of how this program can benefit your students and your school.
Best regards and stay safe,
Allan Kullen, President, Americans All
301-520-8242 [email protected]
Click here to view our complete proposal to Howard County.
Click here to view our "Proposal to Howard County."
Click here to view a "Suggested implementation plan for a school."