Own Your History® poses this challenge: What kind of America do we want for ourselves and our descendants? Our future is in our hands.

History is our path forward. OYH allows diverse, often divided groups to objectively explore our unchangeable history. Our resources provide a foundation of understanding for building bridges across divisions.

Individuals and groups of all backgrounds, from teen to adult, will benefit from engaging with these resources.

OYH programs for students can motivate and empower them to understand our complex history. It prepares them to make choices to shape their futures, as well as to pursue equity & justice as citizens or community leaders.

YOU can bridge divides & build community

Each of us can be a community builder, whether through an existing organization or a grass-roots initiative. Anyone can bring together a diverse group to explore their varying perspectives on the American experience through Own Your History®.

Here’s how

Create a joint OYH program by pairing your school, library, youth program, community group, religious organization, club, or neighbors with an organization or group with different demographics or views.

Which OYH resource is best for your group?

OYH offers programs & materials for different audiences. Each fosters curiosity to help us see America’s past more honestly and reject distortion of facts. OYH provides a forum for sharing our history across divides, acknowledging our differences & imperfections, and opening space to build community.

• Own It! is a flexible transformative enrichment program for after-school with young people 12-18. An adult version is also available.

• The Own Your History® leadership curriculum is for high school, to develop more aware citizens.

• OYH Multimedia Resources can be for all ages and provide an array of links that illuminate complexities & the diverse participants in a part of American history we all need to know.

Contact us to help you plan your program. OYH does not charge for non-commercial use of its programs. All OYH materials are available under a Creative Commons license, here.

COMMUNITY BUILDING: The CHATTANOOGA model

Beginning in 2021, OYH has offered a Community Building program in Chattanooga TN with participation by middle schoolers from a school or Boys & Girls Club. It is now being offered annually, with the next session scheduled for early 2025.

The Chattanooga model brings together a group of eighteen diverse middle school students who take part in a 7-meeting series of 150-minute OYH sessions using the Own It! Handbook. It was piloted in 2021 with two schools in Chattanooga, TN, the McCallie School and Chattanooga Preparatory School, as a joint after-school OYH program. McCallie is a 116-year-old predominantly white private boys school, while Chattanooga Prep is a charter school for boys opened in 2018 with predominantly minority students. The Chattanooga Boys & Girls Club has participated with McCallie since 2022.

As the McCallie Middle School Principal stated, their goal is to help participants prepare to “become future leaders of the Chattanooga community... [by] learn[ing] now how to work through differences and build a strong community.”

At the end of the 2021 program the Chattanooga Prep CEO said: “Already we’re seeing a lot of growth and understanding, and that translates into building bridges, building community. This is a great first step that we’ve taken together as two schools dedicated to preparing our community leaders for the next generation.”

Click this link to listen to the National Public Radio interview with two middle school students and the program leaders.

Click this link to see a local newspaper article about the program.