The Own It! Handbooks are guide books for a transformative after-school, trauma-informed enrichment program. The 21st Century Health  Challenges & Inequities handbook provides  lessons & activities about essential elements of the American health and healthcare system. In 2020, the strengths and weaknesses of American health care were brought powerfully into each home by  the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Like  prior 20th century health crises --the 1918 flu, polio,   AIDS -- COVID-19 represented a fundamental challenge to all Americsans. This Handbook seeks to help us better understand how our healthcare systems can better serve the American people.Own It! also nurtures academic skills, personal growth and leadership. It uses history to connect our past to our future, as part of the Own Your History® (OYH) Collection. But Own It! is not “school” and it differs from traditional approaches to history.  

The United States today is more divided than at any time since the 1860s. The deep divisions in our country are fundamentally about our history. Community building thus must start with our history. Own Your History® (OYH) seeks to initiate grass roots change by  helping diverse groups reach across divides to find commonality and understanding, despite continuing differences.We are inheritors of an America shaped by prior generations. “All of us benefit from inheritances we did not choose and cannot change. Growing up involves deciding which part of the inheritance you want to claim as your own, . . ." Susan Neiman, Einstein Forum We are not responsible for what forebears did, constructive or destructive. But we each  are responsible for what we do, including perpetuation of selected parts of our national past. We can become a better country by using OYH to develop acceptance of differences and all forms of diversity, which can create a foundation  for stronger communities across this country.

Does Democracy Matter in My Life?- Own It! Handbook is the guide book for a transformative after-school, trauma-informed enrichment program. It provides five  lessons & activities about essential elements of American democracy since the 1780s. Own It! also nurtures academic skills, personal growth and leadership. It uses history to connect our past to our future, as part of the Own Your History® (OYH) Collection. But Own It! is not “school” and it differs from traditional approaches to history.  Own It! helps students learn more about themselves, as well as their community and the country. Own It! enhances students’ engagement in being creative, making things happen, and  achieving goals. Its mission is to help them step up and enrich their lives, especially by understanding that they live in history. 

The “Own It!” Handbook for Adults & Teens is a step-by-step guide to a fourteen topic after-school program, such as a Boys & Girls Club, or an adult Community Building group. For adults, it seeks to bridge divides and  explore what Americans have in common. For teens, it is a transformative after-school, trauma-informed enrichment program. It nurtures academic skills, personal growth and leadership. For all, it uses history to connect our past to our future, as part of the Own Your History® (OYH) Collection. Our inheritances from family history and the American experience provide the starting point for our personal journeys.  Our individual stories are part of a complex American history. We each can choose consciously to write our life story and work for a greater future. Own It! is not “school” but enhances students’ engagement in being creative, making things happen, and  achieving goals. Its mission is to help them step up and enrich their lives, especially by understanding that they live in history.

The “Own It!”Handbook for Ages 11-16 is the guide book for a transformative after-school, trauma-informed enrichment program. It provides a series of lessons & activities that nurture academic skills, personal growth and leadership. It uses history to connect our past to our future, as part of the Own Your History® (OYH) Collection.Our inheritances from family history and from living in the United States provide the starting point for our personal journeys.  Our individual stories are part of a complex American history. We each can choose consciously to write our life story and work for a greater future.  But Own It! is not “school” and it differs from traditional approaches to history. Own It! helps students learn more about themselves, as well as their community and the country. Own It! enhances students’ engagement in being creative, making things happen, and  achieving goals. Its mission is to help them step up and enrich their lives, especially by understanding that they live in history.