Add your story. Shape your future.
PLUS ME Project activates the art of personal storytelling to increase confidence in youth as they pursue college, career, and life goals.
MISSION
Where all communities are filled with courageous voices whose stories are heard, valued, and celebrated.
VISION
Personal storytelling is the heart of our work. Every program uses this universal art to help students reflect, connect, and communicate. Our objectives are to help students develop:
OUR APPROACH
The capacity to own their identities
The strength to voice their experiences
The skills to empathize with others
The motivation to achieve their dreams
OUR STORY
PLUS ME Project began in July 2013, rooted in the lived experience of founder Richard Reyes, a proud Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) graduate who once questioned whether college was meant for him. It started when Richard was asked to research his family’s college history as a homework assignment while in middle school. He learned that he did not come from a family of college graduates, a discovery that made him doubt his own path and sense of belonging–a sentiment that resonates with many first-generation students.
While earning his Bachelor of Arts degree in Critical Theory/Social Justice from Occidental College, he began sharing the story of how he became the first in his family to attend college with middle and high school students. After each talk, he noticed something striking: young people were inspired by his story, but when asked about their own, they would often shrink back and say, “I don’t have one.”
That insight became the spark for the PLUS ME Project. Richard realized the transformative power of relatable role models and the urgent need for a structured, empowering way for students to explore, articulate, and share their own stories.
PLUS ME Project has since developed story-based workshops that help young people develop self-awareness, self-confidence, and social bonds with their peers. Its story-building models support this work by teaching youth how to reflect on the elements of their lives (characters, settings, events) and turn them into fruitful lessons by identifying their individual and collective strengths. As students articulate their experiences, they identify their own struggles and strengths, often making unexpected connections with peers.
Today, PLUS ME offers story-based interventions that foster meaning-making delivered during the critical developmental window for building narrative identity. To date, our work has empowered more than 200,000 students across 450+ schools and organizations.
What began with one student finding his voice has evolved into a movement in which thousands of young people embrace the power of their own stories.