Hour 31 - Write Around Portland

This afternoon's volunteering was with Write Around Portland at their headquarters in downtown Portland. I came across WAP while searching Idealist, a world wide searchable database for non-profit related work.  Write Around Portland provides writing writing development oppurtunities (in the form of workshops) to those who otherwise wouldn't have access- adults and youth who are troubled, homeless, etc. Once the writers complete a 8-10 week workshop, they submit their favorite writings to WAP. I was drawn to WAP; as someone interested in writing, but also as someone interested in working with the homeless/needy here in Portland.

My role with WAP today was to help decide which of the submitted writings would be published in the Write Around Portland anthology. The books are published 3 times a year and can be found at local bookstores here in town.

For this anthology, WAP is working with 17 organizations in Oregon which provide services to the troubled, sick, and homeless. My group, of 5 other volunteers, reviewed entries of poetry and prose from two of these 17 organizations. We read each entry and ranked them in order of our liking and at the end of our meeting we talked about which were our favorites.  WAP will take the feedback on entries from all 17 organizations and pick the best writings to go in the Spring edition, which will be their 14th published anthology. I'm looking forward to volunteering with the group in the coming months to help them meet their aggressive print deadline for the book of writings.