This page contains two sections.

1. General resources and tips for structuring, launching, and running a writing workshop.

2. Speak Up Partnered Workshop information and resources.

📔 General Resources

Goal of a Workshop

• Give a voice to people facing homelessness — and to everyone else.

• Create community and friendships that span typical cultural and social divides.

• Grow personally through writing in community.

• Serve as a launchpad for publication in Speak Up and elsewhere.

Tips for Starting a Group

• Host it in a public and accessible place, e.g., public libraries.

• Go where the need is—where people are already gathering, where there's a point of friction.

• Open to everyone. Embrace the wealth to be found in diversity—demographic, age, socioeconomic status, religious affiliations, viewpoint diversity, etc.

• Be consistent and embrace small beginnings. It may take weeks or months for more than one or two attendees.

Running the Group

Bring the Necessary Supplies

• Pens and Notebooks for attendees to use and keep

• Coffee or hot drinks to warm the body and soul

• Optionally: donuts or food

Supply prompt sheets for each person

• Printed, physical sheets are recommended

• Open-ended prompts

• Suggested: each writing block offers 2-3 prompts, so writers can choose which best resonates

Structure: Write — Read — Appreciate

• Write — Everyone writes, choosing from 2-3 prompts, for 10 minutes.

• Read — who want may read aloud their pieces.

• Appreciate — applaud after each reader. (The applause is not for the content of their piece, but for the fact of their piece — for their willingness to share.) If in a location where applause would be disrupted, consider some other physical or verbal response after each one.

Best Practices and Tips

Everyone Participates. Request that everyone in the room participates in writing—eliminate “us” and “them” dynamics. (Reading aloud is always optional.)

Limit the response to applause and "thank you" to each reader. Refrain from giving feedback, coaching, advice.

It's often more powerful for the reader if their work and sharing is able to hang in space without interpretation or response from others.

🤝 Speak Up Partnered Workshops

Consider intentionally partnering with Speak Up for access to more resources, funding, community, and more.

Partnered Workshop:

• Listed on the Speak Up website, along with contact details and meeting times.

• Have a dedicated About page and fundraising campaign page on Speak Up.

• Invited to participate in monthly Workshop Partners video chats for training, collaboration, and sharing with other facilitators.

• Sent free copies of the latest issue of Speak Up.

• Sent free copies of printed Speak Up Prompts booklets — coming soon

• Invited to self identify as "Speak Up Writing Workshop: [Location]" or a naming scheme that uses Speak Up in the title

Partnered Workshops: What You Commit

For Speak Up Partnered Workshops, we look for the following alignment:

Open to Everyone

• No cost or socioeconomic barriers to entry.

• Anyone can attend: regardless of housing status.

Welcoming to Everyone

• Facilitated in such a way as to make it comfortable to all, regardless of housing status, political views, religion, perspective on cultural issues, etc

Freedom to Write and Share Fully

• Write honestly, own and share your story as fully as possible.

Focus on Writing

• The primary purpose is writing and sharing that writing, versus one of the many other valid small group expressions: e.g., discussion group, book club or Bible study group, therapy group, resource-sharing group, etc.