Literary Arts Partnership at UCF

What We Do

We believe poetry and storytelling are powerful tools that enhance literacy, learning attitude, self-confidence, character, and self-awareness. We train and support University of Central Florida students to provide poetry and storytelling workshops and mentoring to children, youth, and adults throughout central Florida.

• We use the literary arts to promote literacy, self-awareness, and volunteerism.
  
• We build and foster community partnerships and outreach.
  
• We seek ways to improve literacy and communication to advance the human spirit.
  
• We expand research in the study of the connection between the literary arts and literacy.
  
• We provide one-on-one mentoring for children, youth, and adults.
  
• We lead training workshops for public school teachers who wish to incoporate creative writing into their curricula.
  

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

We train and support UCF students to design and lead workshops in public schools, assisted living facilities, community service centers, homeless and domestic violence shelters, residential treatment facilities. Students often begin working with us through a Service-Learning project required by their instructors, but we have many students who work with us on a volunteer basis. Typically, students work in groups of 2-5 and lead once-a-week worskhops over a period of 10 to 12 weeks. Then students organize a reading and celebration for the community participants. Depending on funding, we aim to print booklets for each participant of his/her writing done during the workshops.

"Poetry is more than words on a page. Poetry is about understanding the world around us a little bit better. Poems take a subject (sometimes one we know well or sometimes something we don’t know anything about or even sometimes things we don’t want to see) and revitalize it from the writer’s perspective. Three poets can look at the same flower and write three entire different poems which in turn provide three different versions of understanding that flower. When we read poetry we get to understand the world on a small or larger scale all the better. Communities need poetry." -- Linsey Guertin, Spring 2008 UCF student

SERVICE-LEARNING FOR UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

UCF defines service-learning as "a teaching method that uses community involvement to apply theories or skills being taught in a course. Service-learning furthers the learning objectives of the academic course, addresses community needs, and requires students to reflect on their activity in order to gain an appreciation for the relationship between civics and academics."

Most of the students involved in our workshops are English majors; however, we welcome students from all majors. Many of our community partners, especially those who serve children and youth, ask for college students to work as math or science mentors. Other majors, such as business majors, have helped us raise funds, organize campus visits for inner city youths, organize our files, design our website. Hundred of college freshmen have worked as writing tutors for elementary students.

GRADUATE STUDY:

During the Spring of 2008, we offered two Graduate Assistantships. Each Graduate Assistant has trained and supported several undergraduate stduents in the field. We are continuing to raise funds so that we can continue to provide Graduate Assistants to our community partners. We hope to offer residencies to graduate students at various locations throughout central Florida. One graduate student would be assigned to a specific site, and, serving as writer in residence, would be on-site ten hours per week, providing tutoring in reading and writing, coordinating creative writing workshops with undergraduates and the children, youth, and/or adults at the site, and providing consultations with administration to enhance literacy at the site.