Community Partners

WriteGirl

The Mission

WriteGirl promotes creativity, self-expression and empowerment among teenage girls who are paired with professional women writers as their mentors.

Write Girl participant reading her poety

Headed by Project Leader Keren Taylor, WriteGirl proved so popular with the teen girls it targeted, that within a year, the project had an impressive pool of mentors, more girls wanting to participate than financial resources could support, and enough work for at least 10 people. Keren is learning to manage her project's impressive growth. With guidance from Community Partners staff, she is developing her board, strategizing about fundraising and organizational development, and learning the ins and outs of hiring her first staff.

Keren works closely with Community Partners’ Eva Kaufman, Manager of Incubator Services, as she expands her project. “I’ve frequently met with Eva and she has been so helpful in allowing me to define realistic strategies for leadership.” From adding 20 volunteer staff members, to a diverse advisory board of community leaders, and a growing system of strong strategic partnerships, WriteGirl continues to strengthen its leadership capacity. It has been a gradual education for Keren, as she likens her time at Community Partners to “a mini-MBA program,” and looks to a time in the future when she will have developed the skills required to operate on her own.

How Community Partners Has Helped

Community Partners helped project leader Keren Taylor to grow her organization’s leadership capacity by helping her to clarify board member roles and responsibilities, identify leadership skill gaps, and create a plan for recruiting new board members to fill organizational needs.

SOURCE: Community Partners 2003-2004 Biennial Report

PROJECT STATUS: WriteGirl has been a project of Community Partners since 2002, and has expanded its programs to include both one-on-one mentoring and monthly workshops. Four annual anthologies have been published to date.