Celebrating Spring Successes

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 total number of participants reached, writing with 209 people! That’s hundreds more people who now know the power of writing in community. These participants also helped us create our newest anthology Countless Vibrant Lives which is filled with their beautifully unique stories.

And as much as we love quantitative data, qualitative data is where our heart is and we have heard from numerous participants just how impactful their experiences were with Write Around Portland.

“Writing workshop has been nothing but positive, even when it was challenging we were still able to laugh and have fun and genuine memories. I for sure think it’s helped me with opening up and building communication skills,” said Amonte Latham, a spring 2024 participant.

While we had some incredible successes this spring, we’re excited to bring that momentum to our fall season of creative writing. Here are some of our goals:

  • Bring 15 six- to ten-week creative writing groups to nonprofits, hospitals, prisons, and other agencies across Portland.
  • Return to work with partners including Maybelle Center for Community, The Alano Club of Portland, Multnomah County HIV Health Services, Oregon Burn Center at Legacy Emanuel Hospital, REACH CDC, and Community Partners for Affordable Housing.
  • Connect to new housing buildings with Do Good Multnomah and Central City Concern, and return to MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility, Home Forward, Virtue Recovery Center, and Springdale Job Corps.
  • Prioritize writing with veterans, adults in recovery, youth in job training, seniors, and people living in affordable housing.
  • Hold our 27-hour facilitator training with 10 new volunteers, who will then go lead our community writing groups.
  • Overhaul our materials, writing samples, postcards, and facilitator handbook to ensure they are trauma-informed, equitable, and accessible. (We’re grateful to have two interns helping with this work!)

You can imagine that we’ll need helping hands to get all this done! Check out our volunteer page for more information on getting involved. If you have any questions, our Volunteer Coordinator Elisabeth Geier is available at egeier@writearound.org or (503) 796-9224.

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