Many Americans live privileged lives. They can’t relate to the horrors inner-city youth endure daily. To help America empathize, we used inner-city children’s real-life experiences of drug abuse, violence and hunger to create a children’s book from everyone’s childhood.

The book, “Welcome to My Neighborhood,” consisted of three illustrated bedtime stories, each telling a different child’s story — one of drug abuse, one of violence and one of hunger. Each horrific yet true story came to life using the child’s own words, but was put into a format everyone could relate to. It was a book written by children, yet not suitable for children.

We distributed the book to key policymakers, funders and media outlets asking them to donate their time, money and power to help put an end to stories like these.

“Welcome to My Neighborhood” is designed with the same size, illustration style and design elements of a children’s storybook. At first glance, you think it is a storybook from your childhood, but that quickly changes once you open it.

We worked with our illustrator to develop each of the book’s characters. Many characters came directly from research photos of inner-city homes, families, crime scenes and crackheads. Once we had our characters, we could start telling the story.

The book consisted of three illustrated bedtime stories, each telling a different child’s story — one of drug abuse, one of violence and one of hunger. Each horrific yet true story came to life using the child’s own words, but was put into a format everyone could relate to. It was a book written by children, yet not suitable for children.

With zero media dollars, “Welcome to My Neighborhood” garnered more than 50 million earned impressions from 30 different media outlets.

The coverage caught the attention of large corporations such as Cerner, UnitedHealthcare and Children’s Mercy Hospital. These companies are now eager to help Youth Ambassadors fund its program.

Many other community-minded organizations have also used the book to make the issues facing inner-city youth more relatable to those who can help with real change:

1. Health Federation’s Mobilizing Action for Resilient Communities

2. The Director of Government Relations for the School District

3. Executive Director of Student Intervention for the Kansas City School District

4. Jackson County Youth Detention Center

5. Plaza Academy (an alternative school for teenagers)

6. Violence-Free Kansas City Committee