Encouraging Voice, Empowering the Unheard
The Toronto Writers Collective inspires and empowers the unheard through writing.
The Toronto Writers Collective promotes an inclusive city, celebrates diversity and honours the lives of all of its citizens. We support the transformational power of being heard.
The Toronto Writers Collective provides free creative writing workshops to those deprived of voice in our society. Writing with others in an atmosphere of dignity and respect, participants discover the value of their own stories.
We believe:
• Everyone is a writer, regardless of prior writing experience and formal education;
• Through encouragement and support, people grow as writers;
• In the unique creative genius of every voice;
• Each person’s experience provides a wealth of inspiration as a writer and an artist;
• In creating a non-judgmental, open and respectful community where all writers support and deeply listen to each other, take risks and grow as writers;
• Each person, through writing, can shape and influence the lives of others; and
• We can achieve social change by offering opportunity and encouragement for all writers,
regardless of race, ethnicity, class, age, gender, sexual orientation or physical ability.
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Established as a non-profit corporation in 2012, the Toronto Writers Collective has trained over 180 volunteer writing workshop facilitators in the TWC method, designed specifically to encourage expression in vulnerable communities. Inspired by the Amherst Writers and Artists Method and its history of transformational writing, we currently have over twenty writing workshops in shelters, community centers, and public libraries reaching out to the homeless, people in recover from addiction, others with mental illness, in conflict with the law, youth at risk, abused women, elders, adult learners and the Indigenous, Immigrant, Refugee and 2SLGBTQQIA communities. The TWC has facilitated over 2,480 workshops providing over 14,250 writing workshop experiences for more than 2,340 writers from the communities we serve. We also share the inspiring pieces, written by participants, on the TWC website and at public events. In 2017, we published our first anthology: Front Lines: Voices from the Toronto Writers Collective. A second anthology will be released in 2020.
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To learn how you can get involved, Contact TWC today. [vc_empty_space height=”32px”]