Believe 2 Become helps students, families and neighbors keep academic success front-and-center with programs and materials that encourage our whole community to get involved.

Williams Group understood how ideas can be diffused through social networks and took advangage of positive peer pressure. 

Recognition: Photo shoots, media interviews, and “class of” wristbands given to every Grand Rapids Public School (GRPS) student recognized the unlimited potential of today's urban youth. 

Giveaways: T-shirts designed for students and parents were coveted items, and were launched into the crowd at community meetings, GRPS park parties, Grand Rapids Griffins games and other events by neighborhood liaisons who were spreading the message.

Marketing kits: Forty Change-Maker congregations received banners, yard signs, T-shirts and wristbands, and enlisted students (and their parents) to sign pledges promising to do things like attend school, complete (and check!) homework and do their best each day.

Spreading the message about opportunities: Wg helped seventeen summer learning program providers fill their spots with students nominated by their teachers through direct mail catalogs and support for recruitment assemblies and phone marketing.