During the 2008-2009 school year my fifth grade students and I launched “The ONE Voice Campaign,” a social justice inspired movement. We share the understanding that we live in an interdependent world where your fate and mine are inextricably bound with people half a world away, as well as just up town. Therefore, the idea of “one voice” refers not only to the importance of each of our voices, but the importance of joining together as “one voice,” understanding the enormous difference it can make in all of our lives; the difference in can make in history.

In 2007 we also joined forces with Oprah’s Angel Network and Free the Children to raise awareness and funds for the war-torn regions of West Africa. Last year we continued our fundraising efforts bringing our total to just over $24,000, to date. I continue to be most proud of these remarkable students for their passion and how they have chosen to channel their desire to evoke change.  As a class, they also chose to put pen to paper creating a compilation of essays titled ONE Voice. Their book serves as an open invitation to join us in our campaign for truth and justice, while also serving as an educational tool to stretch the hearts and minds of its readers. As you navigate through our site, I hope you begin to feel the passion and urgency these fifth graders feel as they have begun to recognize their own power to become change agents in our world. I hope they inspire you as they continue to inspire me.

As we come together, in solidarity, to unite in transforming the lives of vulnerable children around the world – we are inevitably transforming our own lives as well. Please join us!

Please check our site often for updates on our grassroots, student-led social justice movement.

-Taylor Hoffmann, Educator and Founder of ONE Voice Campaign