The Freedom Writers Foundation is a non-profit organization created to "inspire young, underprivileged students to pick up pens instead of guns.
"[1] It was founded by Erin Gruwell, and John Tu (cofounder of the Kingston Technology Company) is a benefactor.
It positively affects communities by decreasing high school dropout rates through the replication and enhancement of the Freedom Writers Method.
"Low test scores, juvenile hall, alienation, and racial hostility helped us fit the labels the educational system placed on us: 'unteachable,' 'below average,' and 'delinquents.
[1] Gruwell also invited guest speakers to talk to her students, including Miep Gies, a woman who helped Anne Frank's family hide during the Holocaust, and Zlata Filipović, who wrote her own diary when she was only eleven years old.
They have pursued their undergraduate and graduate degrees, while continuing to share their story and mentor students across the country about what it's like to receive a second chance.
She started teaching in the fall of 1994 at Woodrow Wilson Classical High School in Long Beach, California.
Groups inspired by the Freedom Writers include the Students of Unlimited Leadership [SOUL] Program in Chico, California and the Waller Scholars in Atlanta, Georgia.
Connie Heermann, a teacher in Perry Township, Indiana, used The Freedom Writers Diary as part of her curriculum and received a one and a half year suspension.