They’re Finding Hope for Their Future in Comic Books and Journal Entries

When Kevin Vaughn Jr., a 15-year-old from North Philadelphia, wrote a letter to victims of police brutality, he did so from a perspective that many in his community say they share. Namely, that being young and black in America is a raw deal.
“I am sorry you were treated as something less than human,” he wrote. “No matter who or what you are, you should be respected as a human, a citizen, and an American. … Use your experience to make a difference.”
The letter wasn’t intended to be read by anyone other than him and his classmates, a group of about a dozen teens from some of Philadelphia’s poorest neighborhoods. Vaughn Jr. wrote it for a writing workshop that encourages young people like him to record their thoughts and feelings in a journal — punctuation, spelling and grammar be damned. The point wasn’t to get a good grade; it was simply recording his experience that mattered.
Vaughn Jr. is taking part in Mighty Writers, a program that teaches writing skills to students between the ages of 7 and 17. The nonprofit works with about 2,500 kids annually, exposing them to everything from playwriting to comic book creation through after-school classes, night and weekend workshops, and summer sessions. Boosting literacy skills is crucial in a city like Philadelphia, where nearly half of the population lacks even the basic reading skills to hold down a job. The idea behind Mighty Writers is that kids who master writing also make better decisions, have higher self-esteem and achieve greater success as they enter adulthood.
The first step is getting them to think creatively, says Amy Banegas, program administrator for the North Philadelphia chapter of Mighty Writers. This summer, Banegas, a 14-year teaching veteran of North Philadelphia schools, is holding weeklong summer sessions at the Mighty Writers location just north of the city’s burgeoning Center City neighborhood. It’s the fourth writing center the nonprofit has opened since its founding in 2009.
Despite downtown Philadelphia’s booming economy, the local school system is flailing. The cash-strapped district, which educates about 130,000 students, has had a hard time retaining permanent teachers, resulting in dramatically low test scores across the city. To save money, the education department will reportedly begin closing three schools a year starting in 2019.
All of this is bad news in a city where nearly a quarter of the population can’t read or write beyond an eighth-grade level, according to a report by the National Center for Education Statistics in 2003, the most recent year information is available. 
“Literacy is horrible in North Philly, from kids to adults. And as parents, you can’t help your child read or write if you can’t do it yourself,” says Banegas, who sees many sophomores enter her program at a fourth-grade reading level. “It’s sad that it’s not shocking.”

Kevin Vaughn Jr., 15, puts his thoughts on paper during a Mighty Writers workshop.

Mighty Writers’ network of 400 volunteers, made up largely of filmmakers, musicians and journalists, attempts to combat that by providing structure through consistent writing exercises based on the issues that affect the kids who attend. In one recent session, for example, students learned how to channel their voices to become advocates for justice and equality.
Mighty Writers measures the impact of their program by assessing participants’ writing development using a tech platform. Additionally, the organization tracks students’ self-reporting on writing motivation and writing stamina over time. Education director Rachel Loeper says that she’s seen improvement among the students who attend.
There have been other city-based organizations that are similar to Mighty Writers. One is Writers Matter  at La Salle University, which focuses on middle schools students. Professor Robert Vogel created the program in 2005 and says writing classes like it are imperative in urban areas with large populations of low-income and special-needs students.
“The writing programs in most large cities are pretty minimal and don’t really address the adolescent issues these students experience. Schools there just aren’t as well-funded as they are in suburban and rural areas,” Vogel says. “It’s a whole different social-economic dynamic in inner cities. As a result, the resources aren’t that good, and the challenges are much greater.”
At the Mighty Writers summer workshop that NationSwell attended, the topic at hand was the state of “being unapologetically black.” Students discussed police violence against African-Americans — specifically the deaths that have dominated headlines over the past five years — and then wrote in their journals. That these kids would have strong feelings about cops isn’t a surprise. In 2015, a federal study found that 81 percent of police shootings in the city targeted black residents in North Philadelphia. Just last month, a policeman in North Philadelphia’s 15th precinct shot and killed an armed black man after he was stopped for recklessly riding a dirt bike.
“It’s not just a workshop,” says Banegas. “It’s about self-growth and connecting to community.”
Those are qualities that Vogel, who conducted a three-year study on the effectiveness of his Writers Matter program, says are necessary for future success.
“There’s an emotional and social impact, and a building of confidence among the children that is hard to measure, but we’ve been able to see [those positive results] through interviews with [participants],” he says. “These kinds of programs have an impact that goes beyond the academic.”
Vaughn Jr., the 15-year-old who penned a letter to victims of excessive police force, says he’s learned to appreciate the practice of keeping a journal since enrolling in Mighty Writers.
“I find value in it because it’s a great way to let you know what you’re thinking and feeling,” he says. “It’s just keeping note as to where you are as a person.”
Homepage photo by Joseph Darius Jaafari
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This Special Comic Book Makes Autistic Kids Feel Like Superheroes

Most comic books follow a classic formula. There’s the superheroes, the villians, and of course, the epic battles of good versus evil. But Face Value comics deviates from that a little bit by featuring Michael, the series’ fearless leader who has autism.
These original comics were created by Pennsylvania-based mental health professional Dave Kot, who is autistic himself. His aim for the series? To not only help shift public perception about the disorder, but also to provide kids on the spectrum with a hero they can relate to. In the story, Michael struggles with being accepted in school, as well as other challenges that superheroes face—you know, like intergalactic invasions. In fact, in a video published on TruthAtlas, Kot explains that his favorite scene in the series is where Michael gets ready to walk into his first day of school. The page is printed upside down—but it’s not a mistake. “It might appear that Michael is upside down. He kind of is. But it was done intentionally,” Kot says. “Readers have to literally change their perspective to look at a person with autism differently than they may have expected. And that’s the point of what we’re doing with the comic book.”
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The comic’s illustrations are unique in that they focus closely on the characters’ facial expressions as a way to help readers better understand how autistic individuals respond to certain situations. “Freeze-framing a facial feature allows a reader to understand what the facial feature looks like, and that’s one level of what we’re doing with the comic book,” Kot says. “The second level uses speech bubbles to give language to what that feeling is. So you actually begin to understand, when a character says, “I’m angry,” and then you can begin to match up that language to the facial expression. The entire story helps place the situation in context, on what maybe made them angry, and what that looks like… That helps build empathy.”
Right now, Face Value comics are sold in a few independent comic books stores in central Pennsylvania. The first issue can also be digitally downloaded or ordered online. So far, the reception has been extremely positive, with Kot saying that the first run of 100 comics sold out in just a few days, right around Christmas. In-stores sales are also strong, and Kot says he’s received fan mail from people around the world. “We’re just one voice,” Kot says. “But it’s one voice that isn’t being heard in the comic book market, and it’s one voice not being heard in a lot of social advocacy. And this sets up a dialogue to be able to talk about what autism is, and what it isn’t.”
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