Hope In A Box

Hope in a Box collaborates with rural public schools to make classrooms more LGBTQ-inclusive. Our goal is to diversify narratives taught in classrooms by donating diverse literature, building inclusive curricula, and coaching educators on LGBTQ themes and terminology. Founded in 2018, we have worked with 25 rural public schools to pilot “starter boxes”—sets of 30-50 LGBTQ-inclusive books and accompanying media (e.g., movies, soundtracks, magazines) —via partnerships with English teachers and librarians across the country. We provide these starter boxes free of charge and work with educators to incorporate them into school libraries and classrooms. Of the educators we've worked with, 90% believe Hope in a Box noticeably improved their LGBT students’ emotional well-being within the first semester of receiving the materials, and 80% plan to formally incorporate the materials into their curricula. Kevin Jennings, the founder of GLSEN, said, “By providing these resources to schools with little access to them, Hope in a Box is making a life-saving difference for young people.”