Barrio Writers

Type: Active
Age: High school
Optimal size: 11-20
Estimated cost: $100+
Planning time: 5+ hours
Frequency: One-time

Learning outcomes

1. Area teens will become comfortable with writing and critical thinking. 
2. Participating youth will become comfortable with receiving and giving constructive criticism. 
3. Participating teens will attend all five days of the workshop and be published in the Barrio Writers Anthology. 
4. Area teens will learn about the diversity in their county/region by visiting all three locations and listening to their peers. 

Instructions

It is possible to do this as a library run writing workshop OR as an official Barrio Writers chapter through contacting Sarah Rafael Garcia via her website (https://sarahrafaelgarcia.com/) or the Barrio Writers website (https://www.barriowriters.org/).

1. Begin 9-12 months in advance.
   1. Reach out to colleagues and community partners to identify people who would be good to help plan and execute the program.
   2. Start by selecting your dates and times. You will need 5-6 consecutive days. If you're hosting the program at multiple libraries or locations (for example ours was held at 2 libraries and 1 migrant center), double check the room availability at all locations. The workshop runs 3 hours, and the reading is 2-3 hours, depending on number of participants. That means that every day you'll have a 3 hour workshop-- and if you do your reading on the same on the same day as your last workshop, the last day is 6 hours minimum. In 2017 we ran the program from 6:00-9:00 p.m., with the reading from 8:00-10:00 p.m. on the last day (that cuts an hour out of the last workshop); in 2018 the program ran from 5:00 to 8:00 pm, with the reading from 7:00 to 9:00 on the last day (again, losing an hour from the last workshop). Cutting an hour out of the last day is not advised and we will not do that in 2019.
   3. Completely clear your calendar for the dates you've chosen. You will not be able to do desk hours on top of Barrio Writers/Teen Writing Workshop. Make sure management is on board and they have pledged their full support for the implementation and running of the program. If someone else writes the information/circulation/reference desk schedule make sure that they know you and your co-conspirators are not available for desk/outreach/anything else beside this program during the week of. 
2. Develop the application and gather any waivers necessary.
   1. Things to keep in mind:
      1. The first year our County Council had to look over all the application materials and make sure everything was appropriate and offered sufficient coverage. 
         1. If you are partnering with other agencies make sure that any waivers that they need to be in the packet are included as well. 
3. If you are offering transportation to youth, decide what that will look like (or imagine what that will look like) well in advance. Most Barrio Writer's chapters offer bus passes to their youth. Public transit is not an option for our youth because there is no service out to the Davis Migrant Center, which is the most important location of the entire program.
   1. Other options: agency vehicles; write grant to pay for Lyft or renting a van (what I did in 2018); partnering with local school districts for bus transportation (my intention for 2019). 
4. Start thinking about food. If your kids are hungry they will not be able reap the full benefits of the program.
   1. Most Barrio Writer's chapters offer only snacks.
   2. YCL Barrio Writers offers a light dinner for the first four workshops, lots and lots of snacks all week, and a reception dinner on the night of the reading for all Barrio Writers, as well as family, friends, and stakeholders. 
      1. Aside from transportation, food is the most challenging aspect of the program.   
         1. For context: food is a big deal to me. I grew up in a food scarce house and I know 25% of our youth experience food scarcity.
         2. I've been to lots of trainings and seminars where no food was provided whatsoever and they were not as productive as those where all of the food was handled by the organizers.
         3. I did not want the socio-economically disadvantaged youth to have different access to nutrition than their peers, so I decided that providing all the food would be part of the program. 
   3. In 2017 I prepared all of the meals, and about 20% of the food was supplied by donations from community businesses.
      1. I do not recommend doing the cooking yourself. I was not able to be a writing mentor to the youth the first year because I was always in the kitchen. It is very tempting (and honestly satisfying-- feeding a bunch of kids a home cooked meal is a great feeling) to go this route, I understand-- it can save a lot of money.  If you do decide to prepare everything yourself, the person doing the food can only do food, having them split their time between the workshop and the kitchen is impractical and draining. 
      2. I really put my foot down in 2018 about preparing food. On the first day of workshop my colleague thought that she would make grilled cheese sandwiches, because they're easy. She missed three quarters of the workshop doing food and was not able to fully engage while she was there, because she was worried about serving, eating, and cleaning. Even simple meals require a ridiculous amount of work. Learn from my experience! Use that time before the workshop to solicit donations! 
   4. In 2018 90% of the food was pre-prepared and 85% of the food was supplied by donations from community businesses.
      1. I use the same time line that I do for soliciting Summer Reading Donations. 
      2. I slightly edited the iRead SRP donation letter for Barrio Writers, no need to reinvent the wheel. 
      3. You can start with a letter in the mail, as we did in 2017, but it is a better use of your time to go knocking door to door asking for donations (with the same letter!). We went from 2 food sponsors in 2017 with mailed letters, to 6 food sponsors in 2018 with door to door outreach. 
      4. If you don't already have a list of community restaurants and grocers, check your Chamber of Commerce website/location for assistance. Drive around with a buddy and take notes! Get out of the library! There's a whole world out there and overwhelmingly they are excited and happy to help provide meals for young people. :) 
         1. Other ideas for food partners: your local United Way (my intention for 2019); if you do Lunch at the Library and your program runs over summer check to see if you can include the workshop in your food delivery; local food bank; school district; etc. 
   5. Have a weekly menu ready  and decide who is going to pick up the food (or will it be delivered?) every day at least 4 weeks in advance. Preferably the person picking up the food will not be an author, writing adviser, or mentor. This is not a thing you want to forget and have no one assigned to pick up the food day of. :) 
   6. Snacks are available through the duration of the workshops and dinner is served about halfway through. We also provide filtered water and cups. 
5. Soliciting youth participation. 
   1. Barrio Writers is a program the specifically targets underserved populations. You need to decide in advance who your target audience is. 
   2. It has been of highest importance to YCL that we reach out to all corners of our communities, especially those that have been over looked historically. Yolo County Housing is responsible for the administration of the Davis Migrant Center, but they offer no monetary support for youth development due to financial constraints. We knew from the very start that those were the kids we wanted to participate most of all. Our Outreach Librarian worked hard to develop relationships, bring services, and establish trust in that community start a conversation with the youth to gauge their interest. To a lesser extent I did the same in my community of Davis (where services were already established) in 2017; and my new community of West Sacramento in 2018 (there was another YS librarian at Davis by this point-- we continued outreach in all communities in 2018). 
   3. In 2017 we had 9 youth apply and register, and 6 completed the program. In 2018 we had quadruple the amount of applicants, and had to limit registration based on the number of teens we had spaces for in the van we rented. I believe that the efforts we took between the 2017 and 2018 session to further embed ourselves in our communities, outside the walls of the library, accounts for a great deal of that difference. 
   4. Barrio Writer's founder, Sarah, does not recommend much more than 20-25 in the workshop. It becomes too difficult to manage at that stage. 
   5. We distributed flyers in the libraries, to the schools, and to the Migrant Center. We also put out a press release soliciting applicants, and put up flyers in area business, as well as on community bulletin boards. We talked about it in our TAG/Teen Clubs; while we were doing SRP outreach; and anytime time it seemed appropriate (and many times it didn't) to bring it up. 
6. Guest authors
   1. Most locations have 1 author; 1+ writing adviser (that's us, the librarians in this case); and do a field trip to an outside cultural place (museum, art gallery, etc). 
      1. YCL has skipped the field trip day because of our 3 locations.
   2. In 2017 Sarah Rafael Garcia did all 3 days of workshop. 
   3. In 2018 we solicited local authors.
      1. Sarah handled that for us, via her literary connections. 
      2. Good resources for finding local writers: https://www.pw.org/ ; https://buttonpoetry.com/ ; local colleges/universities and community colleges; ask at your local bookseller. 
   4. In 2019 I hope to have 1-2 guest authors. All the teaching work will be done by library staff and visiting author(s), Sarah will not attend. We are little birds ready to fly on our own! 
   5. Author honorarium
      1. We applied for and were awarded several Poets and Writers Grants to help pay for our authors. We gave our authors $100/hr for the workshops and readings. P&W covered half.
7. Week of
   1. Supplies (aside from everything else mentioned above)
      1. Lots of pens
      2. 1 composition book for every participant
      3. 1 three ring binder and folder for all participants 
      4. Plenty loose leaf paper
      5. A Syllabus (developed by Sarah Rafael Garcia and guest authors in 2017, 2018, YCL staff in 2019) for every participant.
      6. Daily readings for every participant
      7. Roster/sign in sheet
      8. Surveys
   2. Room setup
      1. Set up tables and chairs in a U or square shape to avoid hierarchy. 
      2. Have a table for check in (sign in, supplies, etc) and another for food. 
      3. Be there to greet everyone and meet their parents. 
         1. Make the parents leave, we had some that tried to stick around and it was not good. 
8. Daily schedule
   1. Every day had the same basic format, with the exception of the last day which is spent mostly editing work. I've included a sample schedule from the first and last day:
   2. Day One
      1. 5-8pm – Writing to Empower, Writing Advisor: Sarah Rafael Garcia
         5:00-5:15pm Freewriting: “Throw up on Paper!”
         (Daily writing prompt provided)
         5:15-6:30pm Group Readings & Discussion:
         Why I Am A Writer, Pat Mora
         Namestamp, Barrio Writer Nancy Huang
         Repeating, Tongo Eisen-Martin
         6:30-6:40pm Snack Break
         6:40-8:00pm Creating Ideas: "I Can,” Nas (YouTube Video)
         Brainstorming & Writing Time
         Sharing & Giving back: “Tell me something they did well, tell me
         something they can improve on…
   3. Day 5
      1. 5-7pm – “Your Voice is Your Weapon,” Writing Advisor: Sarah Rafael Garcia
         5-5:15pm Freewriting: “Throw up on Paper!”
         5:15-6:45pm Brainstorming, Practice & FINAL SUBMISSION
         6:15-6:25pm Snack Break (working break)
         6:25-6:55pm Rehearsing & Relaxing
      2. 7-9pm – Barrio Writers Live Reading!
9. Reading and reception
   1. The same person who has picked up your food for you all week can help set up for the reading and reception. You will not have time to do this, the last day is pretty hectic.  
   2. If possible, arrange for a local restaurant/culinary program to cater the event (this has been my goal both years, but not yet achieved, hopeful for 2019).
   3. If you're strapped for time, check to see if your local grocer delivers. In 2018 Costco started delivering to our area, so I took advantage of that this year. 
   4. In 2017 we held the reception before the reading, with food and beverage laid out buffet style. In 2018 we held the reception after the reading, with food and beverage laid out buffet style. Both work great. 
10. That's a wrap! Cry and take a nap! You did it! 

Evaluation

Changes for 2019 Barrio Writers program: 

Location: opening day at Arthur F. Turner Community Library; final day and reading at Mary L. Stephens Library; three days at Davis Migrant Center.

Transportation: Partner with local school districts or public transportation to get youth to the locations and home again. 

Meals: Continue to seek out local and corporate sponsors for healthy meals for the youth. 

Consider Spring and Fall sessions; East/West Regional sessions; continue to brainstorm ideas of how to increase the inclusivity of the program. 

Student Feedback:

"Barrio Writers was great because it helped me learn about other people in my community."

"Sometimes it is hard to have a strong voice because the older generation does not always take the youth seriously, but this is just motivation to have stronger arguments for our opinions."

"I liked working on my writing with teens from other areas in the county. I had no idea people even lived out here."

"I feel positive about my writings because I think it will change the community."

"I worked on my college entrance essay at Barrio Writers. I would not have got into UCLA without this program."

"Reading out loud, with everyone listening, was really hard at first. But the librarians and teachers pushed me to challenge myself, and I did, so it wasn't so bad after all." 

We survey the youth pre and post program to measure progress. 

Demographics: 

age/grade

gender

ethnicity

how did you hear about the program?

do  you plan to go to college? 

do you take pride in your culture? 

did you know that you can study culture in college? 

Writing interest:

Do you write (journal) for fun? 

Do  you read for fun? 

What's your favorite subject in school?

How much do you enjoy writing? 

How many days did you make time to write this week? 

What styles of writing do you enjoy most? 

Personal opinion:

What genre of books do you enjoy most? 

Do you have a favorite author? Provide author name or favorite book title. 

How comfortable are you sharing your writing with others? 

How comfortable are you presenting/speaking in public? 

Interest in careers/internships:

What career do you have in mind for your future? 

Do you feel that as a youth you can create change/have a positive impact in your own community/society? 

Do you feel you have a voice in your community (Do you think society would listen to youth if provided an opportunity)? Please provide examples/explanation.  

Based upon these questions and answers we have made a few observations in the past two years:

Students generally offer very little personal information or opinion in the initial survey. Most questions are answered with a yes or no, and very little explanation is given, if at all. 

By the end of the week, students are much more confident in their own abilities (as well as perhaps trust that we actually care/want to know what they have to say), and those survey answers are typically more robust. Do not lose heart if you don't get a lot of good information from the first round of surveys! Trust the process! You'll learn a lot by the time the week is out.