The Making Words Count Lab, named by Anne’s first cohort of graduate and undergraduate students, uses qualitative methods, grounded in community psychology, to highlight the power and salience of words, as opposed to numbers and computations. We focus on the concerns and triumphs of community members most impacted by risk, oppression, and lack of power. By listening to the voices of experts, those with the lived experience to shed light on important social issues in the community, we gain new theoretical and applied knowledge of the strengths used to not only cope, but thrive in high-risk environments. Making words count to us means helping to elevate voices of the often silent majority and create research that makes a difference