“What started as a group of strangers became one of my most cherished group of friends.” — Michael Montoya After meeting through a Write Around Portland Prompt writing group, a group of writers are continuing to build respect, writing and community seven years later! Michael, quoted above, has since become a Write Around Portland facilitator […]

This fall we worked with 14 community partners to host writing groups around the Portland metro area. There were 164 writers who joined our groups, and eight of those groups were led by our brand new facilitators who trained over the summer. 78 of these writers published their pieces in I’m the Ink and 42

With the support of our community, our Winter Reading & Book Release exceeded so many of our expectations. We were at a new location at NW Natural in downtown Portland and as the room filled up, we realized we needed more chairs and had run out of programs before the event even began! By the

Donors helped DeJai discover a new passion DEJAI INITIALLY joined our PIVOT Job Corps writing group mostly out of obligation. At first, she wasn’t thrilled, but felt she should as student body president. DeJai reflected, “I never knew writing could be something I’d enjoy.” Then, the healing power of creative writing kicked in. “The program

Thanks to donors, we wrote with over 450 people! THIS PAST SPRING was a huge success — thanks to donor support! We wrote with people recovering from addiction, people experiencing mental health crises, previously houseless Veterans, and other populations. Writing groups were hosted in all corners of the Metro area – from St. Johns to

Research shows that writing improves wellness EXPRESSIVE WRITING (also called “writing therapy”) is a modality that is often used in healthcare settings. Our program brings expressive writing to all kinds of communities, resulting in transformational change for many. In fact, throughout human history, many cultures have used the arts as parts of important healing rituals.

Thank you for Responding to our Survey! Recently, we sent out a quick 3-question survey to our donors and volunteers asking a few questions to help us improve our organization. We were thrilled at the number and quality of responses. Thank you to everybody who took the time to give us some feedback! (If you

Ken Ballard is a longtime friend to Write Around Portland. He began as a participant in our writing program nearly 25 years ago and we have been lucky enough to keep in touch with him since then. The following is a statement that Ken shared with us recently about why he continues to support the

As we revel in the beauty of what was a very successful spring season for Write Around Portland, we’re also thinking about how we will keep that momentum going for this fall. We were able to bring our writing program to 15 locations, up from 10 in the spring of 2023. We also increased the

We were thrilled to see OPB highlight DoveLewis’ Pet Loss Support program last month. In 2020, we partnered with DoveLewis to provide healing creative writing workshops for grieving pet owners. And we’ve continued to provide these workshops quarterly. Write Around Portland Program Director Sarah Weller noted, “We’ve found that the DoveLewis participants have had wonderful