The Team Behind TextPledge.US is on a Mission to Diminish Cultural Epidemics

 

Naomi Riley, founder of Text Pledge, explains why: “Text Pledge was started due to a distracted driving accident that left me with a life altering condition.”  

 

 In 2017, Riley was involved in a distracted driving accident that left her with a traumatic brain injury. It also left her with a heightened resolve to protect others from a similar fate – especially kids and teens. Because Riley understood the life-saving potential of just one individual making a better choice, she started TextPledge to promote change. TextPledge invites its supporters to make a formal commitment, or pledge, to be part of the solution through personal education, better decision making, and advocacy. The organization offers current data on issues as well as free educational materials that help raise awareness of both the prevalence of an issue and the ways in which people can be part of the solution.  

 

According to TextPledge, distracted driving kills an average of nine people every day in the United States. A person driving 55 mph travels the length of a football field in the time it takes to check a single text message. Though mere seconds, it’s more than enough time to make a serious or even fatal mistake. The problem is only getting worse. The CDC reports distracted driving incidents increased 13% from 2019 to 2022.   
 
These troubling statistics inspired Riley, TextPledge founder, to raise greater awareness about this issue. Though founded in the aftermath of personal hardship, TextPledge is a driving force for change. Today, TextPledge’s mission extends beyond distracted driving to address a wide range of issues threatening safety and wellbeing. 

 

Says Riley, “Over the course of many years, [TextPledge.US] has been able to grow into an amazing program that educates students, and the general public on many of the societal epidemiological issues we see today, as a culture over the last few decades.” The ranges of topics go from Distracted Driving, Discrimination, Acts of Violence with or without weapons, Bullying and Cyberbullying, Raising mental health, and so many more.  “Our innovation of the smart card which is viewable on the Text Pledge app, as well as the ‘up to date’ monthly national statistics on various issues makes the program extremely unique.”     

  

Riley’s larger mission is to make sure these educational resources and conversations are accessible to youths.  

 

As an educational consultant and motivational leader, Riley is equipped to help foster a productive and responsible learning environment via web, tablet and mobile. Riley and the team have built a library of educational material that helps kids from Kindergarten through college-aged levels understand the 10 identifiable social issues and work towards addressing them. Additionally, TextPledge offers a downloadable “Crisis Card” containing contact information for emergency and crisis hotline numbers.   
 

TextPledge.US is inspired by Riley’s passion for educating youths, but with so many pervasive issues plaguing our communities.  

“I am a nonprofit founder but also a founder of many businesses and startups,” says Riley. “It's really important that we as a culture start doing our part to make America strong and unique again.”  

 

Although Text Pledge tackles alarming and tragic topics, Riley says she must lead with creativity in order to continue connecting with the youth as their main audience. “I'm always in Development and Creating,” says Riley. “I've developed 2 new companies recently. A digital resell company as well as an AI course based company.” 

 

From text messaging to online resource downloads, Text Pledge is a very digital driven venture. What kind of branding and intentional design went into the website?  First and foremost, Riley was very intentional about building its digital presence. “I picked .US (Domain name) because it stands for the United States, where so much innovation stems from.”   

 

She continues, “Our website is a safe space designed for students and educators, to learn about these issues to hopefully help to work together to diminish statistics. So much thought and branding went into the actual website and cause. What would work, what would not? How should the logo look? We spent so much time on creating the landscape to keep it simple and appealing.”  

 

But how does Text Pledge reach out? “We engage with youth in a variety of ways to reach them. Our social media channels have the most outreach and help youth think about their decision making process. OUR EDU curriculums are available to implement in any classroom, and have been crafted with so much care. Its everyone's job to do as best as possible to protect our youth just a little more than what we have done thus far. While we have seen tremendous growth in Tech and so many other things, its our job to keep showing youth the potential dangers that could be prevalent, and how to avoid them.  With the tech culture constantly changing, it's highly important we continue to keep up safely and stay on top of ever changing  times in the digital landscapes. All of our resources are available for educators for Free under our Educators section. https://textpledge.us/teacher-resources/ 

 

She says creativity as well as networking is what keeps Text Pledge going. “All sponsors are friends and families who have supported the endeavors since my accident. It's important to keep following a vision of what all see can help save many lives.”