Saturday, July 13, 2013

Volunteer for Youth WRITE Now by Stacey Ritz



Stacey Ritz is the Founder and Executive Director of Youth WRITE Now, Inc. As a freelance writer, author and philanthropist, Ritz founded YWN in 2013 as a national writing initiative for today’s youth. *Come back tomorrow to hear from Brooke, a young writer in the Youth WRITE Now Mentoring Program. 
 
STACEY RITZ, M.Ed.
Founded in 2013, Youth WRITE Now, Inc. is a national writing initiative to motivate today’s youth to use their unique voices to inspire positive change in our world. After earning a Master’s Degree in Education from Antioch University, as an author and freelance writer for countless print and online newspapers and magazines I wanted to create a non-profit organization enabling children and teens to utilize their writing abilities. 

Statistics confirm that strong writers are strong readers—and whether or not you are interested in a future career in the world of writing, developed writing skills can assist in countless future aspirations. Whether you enjoy creative writing, short stories, novels, essays, non-fiction, fiction or poems—writing allows you to develop your own voice, it allows you to share your imagination and to cultivate ideas that have the power to make a positive difference.  Strong writing skills are beneficial when writing college admission applications and when writing resumes. Using our words through the medium of writing, we give power to what exists inside of each us—words that can start a movement, change perceptions or simply provide laughter or insight to the masses.

Youth WRITE Now, Inc. has implemented a nationwide young writer-mentor program to assist writers ages five through seventeen to develop their writing skills. As a new non-profit organization, we are in the process of accepting applications for writing mentors. Writing mentors can be freelance writers, teachers/educators, published authors or journalists. Volunteer mentors are paired with youth who express an interest in the program and are given the ability to discuss and provide feedback to their mentee’s writing, via e-mail. As a mentor with Youth WRITE Now, Inc. you have the power to be a positive inspiration for a young writer looking to develop their unique voice. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer mentor, please contact us.



In addition to our writing mentorship program, YWN provides a Community Give Back Program— donating countless books, notebooks, pens and pencils to schools from coast to coast—to further motivate today’s youth to write! Youth WRITE Now, Inc. shines the spotlight on writing! Through promoting the parent (teacher)/child relationship by enhancing the creativity of today’s youth via writing and other artistic outlets, we strive to empower each child to use their unique and powerful voice to develop self-confidence, imagination and creativity.


While our main focus is on writing, many of today’s youth report back that they build on that creative foundation of writing through other artistic outlets such as painting, play-writing/theater, music/song writing, public speaking, sculpting and so much more. We believe there are no limits to what can be achieved when you are true to yourself and possess self-confidence (which can so often be found through writing!)- your creativity becomes limitless once you tap into the words inside of you.



Please consider signing up to become a volunteer writing mentor for Youth WRITE Now, Inc. – let’s work together to encourage today’s youth to write the next chapter in our ever changing world—a chapter of positive growth, change and development.

Youth WRITE Now Website 
www.youthwritenow.org 
Volunteer Mentor Program
http://youthwritenow.org/young-writer-mentor-program/
Facebook Page 
https://www.facebook.com/YouthWriteNow 

Contact Us - http://youthwritenow.org/contact/

3 comments:

Diana McCollum said...

Youth Write Now sounds like a wonderful program. Congratulations on organizing it. To help youth become better writers can only enrich their lives and be beneficial for them in the future. And like you said, better writers make better readers. Good luck with your program.

Judith Ashley said...

Hi Stacey,

So glad Sarah found out about Youth Write Now because your organization sounds wonderful.
How much time (average) do your mentors invest in working with mentees? and Do you pair a mentor up with more than one young writer?

Making a positive difference in the life of a child brightens all of our futures.

Thanks for joining us at RTG and letting our readers know about your organization.

Sarah Raplee said...

Stacey, thank you for contributing to RTG. I hope some of our readers will consider volunteering to mentor young writers.