This September, Seattle Arts & Lectures raised over $150,000 to support young readers and writers as they return to classrooms, and to the page, where they will become authors of their own lives.

The 2023 Back-to-School Campaign raised over $150,000 so that we can continue providing spaces where young people can flourish, tell their own stories, and be celebrated for who they are.

SAL’s Youth Programs, including our Writers in the Schools (WITS), Youth Poetry Fellows (YPF), and Spotlight Author Visit programs, foster life-long reading and writing practices by connecting working, professional teaching artists with the next generation of readers and writers.

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SAL’s 2023 Back-to-School Campaign, much like any SAL endeavor, is a community collaboration! With the support of a dedicated team of WITS Champions, we shared stories from students, writers, and teachers, writing activities, and of course, literary delights from the brilliant young writers who make our programs shine.

During the campaign, WITS Champions collaborated to raise money for SAL’s Youth Programs through our peer to peer campaign. Each WITS Champion, or team of champions, set their own fundraising goals, as they reached out to their friends, family, colleagues, neighbors, book clubs, and more to ask for support. Collectively, we raised over $150,000 to support our youth programs in the coming year, passing our goal!

Did you know?

• Writers in the Schools served over 4,500 students in the 2022-23 school year and has served more than 100,000 students since it began in 1994!
• WITS Writers-in-Residence partnered with classroom teachers in over 31 public schools as well as two Seattle Children’s Hospital departments this year!
• It costs $20,000 to bring a typical WITS residency to a school and SAL subsidizes 70-90% of program costs.
• SAL pays WITS Writers-in-Residence competitive wages while providing them professional development opportunities, including teaching workshops and writing retreats.
• SAL connects Youth Poetry Fellows and WITS Students with local audiences by hosting public readings and opportunities to read onstage with visiting authors.
• Spotlight Author Visits bring SAL authors to public schools throughout the region, with a focus on connecting students to writers with shared backgrounds.
• SAL Youth Programs publish hundreds of young writers each year through the annual WITS anthology (Kingery Printing), letterpress broadside prints (Partners in Print), and the Seattle Youth Poet Laureate series (Poetry Northwest Editions).