PLAYWRITE
Transforming the lives of youth 'at the edge' through the power of performance in art
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
PlayWrite serves ‘youth at the edge’ (a descriptor developed by a cohort of PlayWrite youth), which includes incarcerated youth, refugee and immigrant youth, those experiencing poverty; those youth who are most at-risk of falling through the cracks of society. PlayWrite addresses two critical issues in our community: (1) there are many young people with virtually no avenues for healthy self-expression, and (2) many of these young people are likely to repeat in their adult lives the behaviors that have put them in harm’s way. Most of the youth PlayWrite serves attend schools that lack regular arts programming, and many have been told they aren’t capable of being creative. PlayWrite bridges the opportunity gap by providing our workshop to the young people that have the least access to the arts. Through emotionally and intellectually intensive coaching, each student creates a play that is entirely their own, and then directs professional actors in a performance for their peers.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Playwriting workshops
PlayWrite-trained coaches work one-on-one with the kids, teaching the playwright’s tools while each builds his or her own play. The writers must be willing to take risks, to speak authentically, to participate in imaginative exercises, and to stick with it. On the final day, each young writer directs professional actors in staged readings performed for a live audience.
Graduate Opportunities
Graduate Opportunities include a range of workshops - poetry workshops, creative writing workshops, journal-making workshops, and group outings to events ranging from theater performances to Portland Trail Blazers basketball games.
Workshops for adults
These workshops serve people who are more than 24 years of age.
Where we work
Awards
Light a Fire 2005
Oregon Community Foundation & Portland Monthly
Humanitarian Award 2011
Willamette Writers
External reviews
Photos
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
PlayWrite’s program is designed to:
• Provide a theatre-arts creative opportunity to students with least access.
• Foster self-sufficiency through experiential success through their own creative voice.
• Help students break the cycle of abuse through artistic exercise.
• Create compassionate and empathetic adults who can positively contribute to their community.
The youth we serve live on challenging precipices—experiencing homelessness, mental illness, surviving abuse and/or addiction, assimilating as recent immigrants, navigating discrimination as LGBTQ individuals. With PlayWrite, they have the opportunity to engage in an intense healing process of self-discovery. Adolescence is a developmental crossroad, when effective intervention can have a significant positive influence on a young person’s developmental trajectory. PlayWrite transforms the lives of youth at the edge by holding workshops in which youth forge – within themselves – emotional and intellectual tools that facilitate resilience and overall well-being.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
At PlayWrite, we have taken traditional theater techniques for dramatic workshops and performance and modified and integrated them with exercises developed from and based on research in the fields of interpersonal neurobiology and experimental psychology. In PlayWrite’s ten-day workshop, student writers work one-on-one with their trained coach, working 2 ½ hours a day, to create an original play. The workshop combines written expression with movement, providing a mechanism for young people to unscramble complex emotional experiences and turn them into narrative form. Writers learn—experientially—how theatre is a powerful vehicle for both reflection and communication in our community. Putting emotion into written language is a crucial element: writing with feeling about significant emotional events is known to produce positive changes in behavior and health. In the powerful one-to-one relationship between coach and writer, the writer is respected as an artist; each word, thought, and emotion in the play is their own. On the tenth and final day, the writers direct professional actors, and watch as their words, thoughts, and emotions are performed before a live audience. In this way, a PlayWrite grad is empowered through discovery and development of their own creative voice, helping build resiliency.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
PlayWrite has been producing workshops since 2004, and to date 967 youth have successfully completed the workshop and seen their work brought to the stage by professional actors. Our work is with a broad range of communities, ranging from incarcerated juvenile youth to recently-arrived refugees. When we initially connect with a particular group (through an alternative high school or community organization such as the Portland Refugee Support Group), we engage in deep conversations with leadership to explore the history and culture of the youth. These conversations enable us to adapt our playwriting curriculum in culturally-appropriate ways for each group.
The PlayWrite model depends on this one-to-one mentoring and coaching. As such, over 75% of donated funds are used to pay our professionally-trained coaches for the workshops, professional actors for their performances, and our small support staff. We have developed a rigorous program for training coaches and are supported by many generous individuals, private foundations, and public organizations such as the Oregon Arts Commission and the Regional Arts and Culture Council.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
To date, PlayWrite has served 967 youth, and their work has been performed before audiences numbering over 12,000. We want to make the PlayWrite experience available to as many youth as possible, everywhere. The PlayWrite team is currently developing a virtual version of our workshop to continue serving youth during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to serve more youth outside of our immediate region.
In 2015, PlayWrite trained members of two NGOs in Tbilisi, Georgia (the Center for Social Sciences, and the Center for the Psychosocial and Medical Rehabilitation of Torture Victims) to replicate the PlayWrite workshop in the Georgian language. This unique, international collaboration was crowd-funded by more than 90 individual donors.
In 2020, PlayWrite began a new partnership with Dr. Omar Reda Untangled Project, thanks to METRO Community Placemaking Grant. The Healing Conversations program brings representatives of refugee and immigrant communities together for facilitated, trauma-informed, intra-community conversations. We engage youth on a journey through a series of intra-group dialogues, with focused activities that integrate expressive arts, connection, meaning-making, place-making, collective healing and cultural preservation. We work to change the narrative of refugees and immigrants that is fearful and hateful, to one that is safe, welcoming and inclusive. Through our series of facilitated dialog sessions we integrate performance art, youth leadership and psycho-social healing. PlayWrite’s work for the Healing Conversations project will consist of two trauma recovery-focused projects with distinct groups: Latinx youth (mostly undocumented), and Somali immigrant youth. Each project will involve 8-10 representative members of the specific group meeting 6 times with facilitators/coaches from Untangled and PlayWrite. This exchange of many cultures and connection anchors our community healing conversations with a gift of lasting friendship, intercultural connection and community building. This all culminates with a final performance developed by participants for the public.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
PLAYWRITE
Board of directorsas of 02/22/2022
Matthew Robinson
Nike
Term: 2021 - 2024
Matthew Robinson
Nike
Sherry Lamoreaux
Kerry Goldring
Kathy Jennings
CFO
Brad Fortier
Oregon Health Authority
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
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Disability
No data