Overview
YWP is a Vermont 501(c)(3) nonprofit formed in 2006 that engages thousands of Vermont and NH students in grades 3-12 in a variety of writing projects, helps them improve and present their best work online, in newspapers and on radio and stage through a variety of media and arts partners.
YWP is built on these facts: strong writing skills are critical for students to succeed, to develop positive self-images, to express themselves and to engage fully in their communities. Students with strong writing skills learn more and, later, are more apt to be hired or promoted in the workplace. YWP’s vision is to create generations of confident writers and engaged citizens. Our mission is to reach as many students as possible, particularly those from socially and economically challenged backgrounds.
YWP has two major emphases:
- Its Youth Initiatives work directly with kids:
youngwritersproject.org, a civil online teen writing community with 4,000+ active users in VT & NH;
YWP Mentors, an extensive online mentoring program that includes a dozen adult experts and 75 trained college students each semester from higher education institution partners;
YWP Weekly Newspaper Series, which publishes students’ best work in nine newspapers and on Vermont Public Radio; in the 2010/11 school year, 1,000 students had their work published, selected from 7,000 submissions;
Events and workshops, including sessions with authors, musicians and multimedia experts and events such as teen-organized monthly, all-ages poetry slams; we’ve had 500+ participants this year.
- Its Teacher Initiatives work directly with teachers and schools:
YWP Schools Project, which includes private websites used as digital classrooms by teachers in all curricula, training and proactive mentoring of teachers and best practice tutorials; and regular web conferences; in 2010/11 YWP worked with 250+ teachers and 7,000 students; and
Master’s Courses through St. Michael’s College and, in partnership with the National Writing Project, through UVM. YWP worked with 41 teachers in 2010/11.
YWP derives a third of its funding from fees for the YWP Schools Project and Master’s courses and the rest from individual donors, foundations and corporate sponsors. Its founding sponsor in 2006 was the Vermont Business Roundtable, which continues to support this organization.
Since 2008, the A.D. Henderson Foundation and Bay & Paul Foundation have been major contributors along with the Windham, Amy Tarrant, Oakland, Metz Family and Richard & Deborah Tarrant foundations and The Vermont Community Foundation.
Major corporate sponsors include FairPoint Communications, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Physician’s Computer Company, Northfield Savings Bank, National Life, Main Street Landing and KeyBank.
