Teaching artists know that many of the children they teach are being deprived of essential human experiences. Poverty, violence, and ineffective education have left them with little hope of emotional or material success, and a student's connection to an artist can change his or her life in little and big ways. Paula Davidoff and Carolyn Hunt are writers and teaching artists. Paula is a storyteller, and Carolyn is a theatre director. Since 2005, they have been co-directors of Girls Surviving, a program in writing and performance they started for adolescent girls in Morristown, NJ. An arts workshop or residency can give a child new insights about school, about their community, and about themselves. However, when the project is finished and the artist moves on, the child's life resumes its normal course and often the opportunity for change has passed by. A program like Girls Surviving effects lasting change because the teaching artists' goal is to build and sustain close working relationships with each other, with their students, and with their community to create an ongoing arts opportunity. Girls Surviving offers experiences that nudge teen girls out of their silence. The program encourages girls to see the world through many different lenses, to hear and understand different points of view so that, when they feel confident to raise their voices, they will speak with greater wisdom.