Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Shout Out for Volunteers to Mentor Young Writers!

by Sarah Raplee

I'm shouting out for volunteers to donate time to teaching/mentoring young writers through charities like Youth WRITE Now (http://youthwritenow.org/young-writer-mentor-program/) founded this year by Stacey Ritz.



Stacey is an award-winning freelance writer who often covers animal-related subjects. She's  executive director of Advocates 4 Animals, a non-profit animal rescue/rehab/adoption organization established in 2002 (http://www.advocates4animals.com/)

Youth WRITE Now "strives to empower each child to use their unique and powerful voice to develop self-confidence, imagination and creativity." The Mentoring Program pairs published author volunteers with young writers, aged five to seventeen. Mentors give valuable feedback and advice when needed.

I hope the writers among our readers will consider volunteering for this or another mentoring program. Deanne  Wilsted provided links to several other programs that support young writers in her post yesterday. (http://romancingthegenres.blogspot.com/2013/06/overheard-at-beach.html)

6 comments:

Diana McCollum said...

Mentoring is a wonderful way to volunteer.Thanks for sharing the site with us. Great post Sarah!

Judith Ashley said...

Looking forward to Stacey's post in July and learning more about Your WRITE Now.

deanne said...

Thanks for keeping this dialogue going, Sarah. I know there are a ton of organizations I missed, so I hope during July we can gather them and then in August maybe I can add them to the resources page of my website. Sooooo Important!

deanne said...

Okay... something else to add- an important NY times article on the decline and fall of the writing major: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/opinion/sunday/the-decline-and-fall-of-the-english-major.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0

Sarah Raplee said...

Thank you for your support, Diana and Judith.

I agree that this is such an important dialogue to have, Deanne. And thanks for the NY Times article addie!

Judith Ashley said...

Important enough to have another guest contributor in August when we Highlight Reader Resources? The Blog Queens will certainly take a look at that possibility.