Pen Pals
4 Change

What is this?Our schools

what is this?

A letter program
for Milwaukee kids.

We pair up elementary classrooms and get them writing to each other on actual paper. We come in, teach the kids how a letter works, and then it's on them.

Every couple weeks the letters move from one school to the other, and we're the ones carrying the bag.

Started by Avleen, a Marquette student, in 2022. Read her story.

Pen Pals 4 Change is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Kids writing letters at their desks, overhead view

letter day at Pleasant View

Teacher leading a letter-writing lesson with kids

A classroom visit

We spend about 45 minutes with the class going over how a letter is put together, and by the end everyone's written their first one.

Matched pen pals

Each kid gets paired with someone their own age at the other school, and we try to find something they'd both care about.

Decorated envelope with colorful drawings

Mail, every two weeks

After that the letters just keep going back and forth. Some kids draw on the envelope, some kids cover the whole thing.

why

why this matters

Kids don’t write like this anymore.

Elementary reading and writing scores have been dropping for years, and it’s not really a mystery why — most kids spend a lot more time typing and swiping than they do writing anything out by hand.

A letter doesn’t let you cut corners. There’s no autocorrect, no backspacing your way out of it — you have to sit down, figure out what you’re actually trying to say, and write it out yourself. Then you get someone else’s handwriting back and have to puzzle through that too.