Americans All is a nonprofit community-outreach program that specifically benefits
and connects students participating in non-academic school activities (such as creating
annual virtual yearbooks for all clubs and teams), and small businesses/service providers
by using a unique storytelling tool and turnkey revenue generator.
We are conducting a pilot program in Howard County high schools and in another county to be named shortly. We will use the lessons learned to expand the program to other Maryland counties and then implement the program nationwide.
Our mission is to house one of the most comprehensive and non-political databases of individual and group stories, past and present, about the Peopling of America. Our storytelling tool is an ideal vehicle to help focus on the commonalities, rather than the differences, in our population. By sharing stories, we can all recognize the contributions of every citizen, while reinforcing the values of diversity and respect, and promoting tolerance, acceptance, empathy and understanding.
Lifetime membership in Americans All, a program of the 35-year-old nonprofit People of America Foundation, is free for individuals and nonprofit organizations. A major benefit of membership is the opportunity to use our unique storytelling tool to create and publish—on Americans All’s Heritage Honor Roll—two legacy stories in English and as many stories as desired in other languages.
We also offer Legacy Partner landing pages where viewers can see all the individual stories published on the Heritage Honor Roll that are associated with their school, team or club. Schools and their clubs and teams can create as many landing pages as desired. For example, landing pages could be created, on an annual basis, for each sports team, academic, social, community service or special interest clubs. Each landing page has a short summary about the team or club, an image and the stories written by its members. Students post their stories directly to these pages, but the LP can easily remove (or reinstate) any story they feel does not belong on their page.
Importantly, Americans All invests 80 percent of the gross revenue received from SLN subscriptions and Business Legacy Partner (BLP) sponsorships in schools and communities that support our program.
Benefits of Storytelling to PTA Families
PTA organizations support schools in getting both unrestricted funds and resources. We can fill this dual role by providing them with a program to add as a fundraising tool (Heritage Honor Roll) and giving schools electronic access to much-needed resources for students participating in non-academic school activities. In addition, many of the members of the PTA (as well as other school families) own or participate in local businesses and as professional service providers and can use this program to gain additional exposure and reach a larger audience for their entities.
Families can also use this tool to pass on knowledge and experiences to current and future generations. Without this information, children will neither understand their roots nor develop their ethnic and cultural identity. In addition, storytelling brings communities together by sharing people’s common histories, rather than their differences.
Click here to view the complete proposal.