September Community Outreach
Dear Friends of Project Write Now:
Now, more than ever, we need to be in spaces where we can come together in community to share our stories. To laugh, cry, and feel connected. To see that we are more alike than different.
Which is exactly what happened at our first-ever Sound Bytes: Stories & Food for the Soul event, which was part of the Prudential North to Shore Festival. We were honored to receive one of the community arts awards so we could create a custom event to showcase some of the amazing stories, food, organizations, and people of Asbury Park.
We’d like to express our gratitude to everyone who contributed to making this event such a huge success!
Thank you to:
✏️The City of Asbury Park Mayor’s Wellness Committee and its chair, Karyn Moskowitz, for your partnership and commitment to the event. The plant-based bites you sponsored from Ada’s Gojjo, Cardinal Provisions, and Cookman Creamery were as nourishing as the stories.
✏️Our storytellers—Ada Asghedom, Lex Bose, Derek Bloom, Matt Daniels, Pamela Major, Kim Obie, Rodney Salomon, Alex Santiago, Charles Trott, and Brendan Ward—who shared a slice of their lives, relating the importance of family, community, and advocacy through food-themed stories.
✏️Our community partners—including Asbury Book Cooperative, Asbury Park Library, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Boys & Girls Clubs of Monmouth County, Catsbury Park, Gear Up (Brookdale Community College), and Kula Urban Farm—who tabled at the event, participated in the Community Passport activity, and donated door prizes!
✏️Our gracious and giving hosts, The Salvation Army of Asbury Park. What a super staff and phenomenal facility!
✏️Matt Daniels and DJ Brett Brett for the perfect musical vibes.
✏️All of our volunteers who helped provide hands-on support—from setup to breakdown!
✏️Asbury Park Public Library & Jai At Play for helping make sure we had kid-friendly and sensory-friendly spaces for youth and adults alike.
✏️Kartheek Photo & MK Flav Video for capturing the event.
✏️Prudential North to Shore for believing in and supporting our vision. It was truly an honor and pleasure for us to be part of the festival in such a meaningful way.
And thank you to our beautiful community for showing up and supporting this event with your presence—what a gift!
With love & gratitude,
Here’s what else we’ve been up to this month. If you are interested in bringing a community outreach program to your school or mission-based organization, email Meredith Avakian, Director of Community Outreach & Engagement, at meredith@projectwritenow.org.
Asbury Park High School
We culminated another academic year celebrating the words and stories of the Asbury Park High School students who participated in our Spoken Word Project. We decided to host the celebration at the Asbury Book Cooperative, which did not disappoint. (Thanks, ABC, for the warm welcome, as always!) The students and educators involved had a chance to share their original poetry, which was published in this year’s anthology booklet. We closed with a mini “found poetry” writing workshop. Everyone was invited to walk around the store, observe words, colors, symbols, and anything that stood out as inspiring. We then wrote and shared our impromptu poetry. Many thanks to everyone who participated in the celebration, contributed to the anthology, and participated in and/or supported our Spoken Word Project with APHS! For the last five years of this partnership, we have been so moved by the magnitude of the stories shared by students and continue to celebrate and champion not only their words, but also their courage and heart.
Jersey Pride Parade (Asbury Park)
We are so proud to have marched in the New Jersey Pride Parade in Asbury Park for our third year in a row. We handed out over 600 rainbow pencils, tons of bookmarks, and endless smiles. We are so grateful to all who marched with us and all who cheered us on. It was a powerful day filled with love and connection!
Little Silver Markham Place
We’ve loved being back for another year with 6th through 8th grades at Markham Place. We concluded our 8th grade Ink & Insight program in May and finished the 6th grade Screenwriting Studio and 7th grade Voices in Verse programs in June.
- 6th Grade
We were thrilled to return to Little Silver School for another exciting year of guiding the 6th grade classes through the art of screenwriting. Over the course of four interactive sessions, students learned to identify the essential elements of storytelling, used the Pixar story structure to develop outlines, and mastered the basics of screenplay formatting. By the final week, each student had made remarkable progress on their own original short film script, which culminated in a lively read-through with performers during our final class. We were blown away by their imagination, creativity, and how effortlessly they embraced a brand-new form of storytelling.
- 7th Grade
After two months of weekly spoken word sessions with all of the seventh grade students, the program culminated with a poetry slam. Students all wrote, memorized, and performed final pieces in front of the entire grade. We had the honor of participating as a surprise guest judge, distributing PWN hoodies to the first, second, and third place winners. It was a joy to witness the students’ enthusiasm, as well as a transformation of their writing within just a couple months. We are super excited to return next year!
Lunch Break Storytelling Project
We launched a new storytelling initiative with Lunch Break, building on the success of the Community Playmaking program last fall. We’ve been focused on generating writing using poetry and prompts. We looked at Naomi Shihab Nye’s Valentine for Ernest Mann to explore the stories we carry with us every day and then reflected on “where we’re from,” inspired by George Ella Lyon’s “Where I’m From.” We also wrote about food-themed and summer memories. The program will culminate on Tuesday, July 22, with a Storytelling Showcase beginning at 5 p.m. All are welcome to attend!
Mental Health Association of Monmouth County
It was wonderful to be invited back to provide another journaling workshop with the Intensive Family Support Services at the Mental Health Association of Monmouth County. In celebration of Pride Month, we shared Chen Chen’s “i love you to the moon &” and wrote off the poem, selecting words, phrases, images, emotions, and memories that the poem stirred in us. We walked away feeling even more inspired to use writing as a holistic tool for well-being.
Lunchtime Write-In
Every Friday, writers meet on Zoom to write and share our stories. This month, we explored the themes: “True,” “Bright, Strange, & Unusual,” and “Orange.” No matter where we Zoom in from, we all feel together in this space. Join us for our next Lunchtime Write-In to see what our upcoming themes will be!
Pride in the Park (Red Bank)
We participated in Red Bank’s Pride in the Park again, handing out notebooks, stickers, pins, bookmarks, and inviting guests to spin our wheel of writing prompts. We also brought our special guest, Lucy the dog. She LOVED all the attention! While the rain kept our visit shorter than we planned, we were thrilled to see the day end with a rainbow. Thank you to all who stopped by our table!
PWN India (Children)
We have been Zooming into India on Wednesday mornings, working with a group of incredible 8th grade writers. We’ve read “What I Want to Tell You” by Laura Gamache and written about ourselves. We also read “Where I’m From” by George Ella Lyon and wrote about the places we come from. One student wrote an ode to her sister and we are waiting to hear about her sister’s reaction to it next week. We love bridging these different cultures together—it’s such a thrill to be working with India!
PWN India (Adults)
Our adult journaling club has been continuing with new faces joining. Each week, we use poetry for inspiration and this month’s selection included “It’s Hard to Keep a Clean Shirt Clean,” by June Jordan, “Summer Haibun,” by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, and “U-Pick Orchards,” by Danusha Laméris. We LOVE all the different stories and poems that emerge and we always feel better after writing together.
PWN Teen Summer Internships
- Editorial Assistants
We are ecstatic to welcome a new group of editorial assistant interns for 2025. These editorial assistants will be writing articles for PWN Teen’s Real Voices Write Now magazine, taking over the PWN Teen Instagram story, creating video content for all of our social media platforms, writing teen book recommendations, promoting teen programming, acting as representatives for PWN Teen in their communities, and more! Be on the lookout for all their hard work. We are so grateful for our EA interns!
- Teaching Assistants
We are thrilled to welcome a new group of interns who will be helping in our summer programs this year. These teaching assistants are prepped with amazing lesson plans they put together themselves, guided by their unique passions and creativity. They’ll be popping in to help us at RBR’s Summer Slam, in our programs at the Red Bank YMCA, in Teen Writing Space, in our private summer camps, and at Write & Reverie on August 7. They are also writing lesson plans we can share with educators to bring PWN into their classrooms. We are so grateful for our TA interns!
- The Interview Project
The interns participating in The Interview Project have officially completed their training! This unique program offers students the opportunity to interview someone connected to a vital community organization and craft a narrative that honors and shares their story. In training, interns got to know one another and explored the tools and techniques necessary to conduct thoughtful and engaging interviews. They participated in various skill-building exercises and examined mentor texts from previous years to develop a deeper understanding of the art and impact of storytelling. They’ll receive their assignments soon—and they’re excited to begin the meaningful work of celebrating their interviewee through story.
Red Bank Middle School 7th & 8th Grade AVID
We had a blast celebrating our 7th & 8th grade Red Bank Middle School AVID students during our end-of-year Writers Celebrations. We are so grateful to those who were able to attend and support our young writers, including the 4th grade class! For more than a decade, we’ve had the honor of creating supportive spaces where students can show up as themselves and explore their thoughts, feelings, and ideas through writing. None of this would be possible without the ongoing support of the administration, staff, and students of the Red Bank Borough Public Schools, who have embraced our philosophy of teaching writing. Now more than ever, youth voices need to be heard and celebrated. Our students need not only to write authentically but also to share their stories with one another—generating deeper empathy, respect, and acceptance. Thank you to the administration at Red Bank Middle School—especially Dr. Jared Rumage, Luigi Laugelli, Dr. Cheryl Cuddihy, James T. Pierson, and Michael Dougherty—for giving us the opportunity to work with your students. A special thank you to Amy Campbell, who not only welcomes us into her classroom but also creates a nurturing space for us to write and share together, and, in participating herself, models to her students how to grow as a writer. And especially to the students who worked with us all year long: thank you for trusting us with your words. Your voices matter, and we’re so proud to be part of your journey.
Write Out Loud
Pride-themed Write Out Loud at the Asbury Book Cooperative was so powerful! After a round of introductions (lots of cat lovers in the room), we read “nothingness and the inability to be celestial without it” by Calista L., 17, from Bridge Ink Volume 2, Issue 4. Then we used lines from the poem as writing prompts: “nobody ever talks about … most of our galaxy … I am in love with …” Writers shared moving pieces about their own lives, how they feel about pride month, their loved ones, and the hardships they have faced. We are so grateful to all who attended. Your stories have stuck with us! Join us for the next Write Out Loud on July 8.
Scholarship Seats
Through our mission as a nonprofit organization, we remove barriers to participating in our fee-based classes by providing full and partial scholarship seats as well as payment plans. Since 2020, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in the need for financial assistance and therefore have met that need by offering more scholarship seats. So far this year, we’ve provided 24 seats totaling $8,254. For information about our scholarship program or to become a valuable donor providing these seats, please email Jennifer Chauhan at jennifer@projectwritenow.org.
Related posts
