While AWAI has grown and changed, our work still centers on this belief. We create settings in which they can write, can begin to experience their own art, their own brilliance, and their own voices. We have seen, over and over, that writing creates change, even for those with the fewest choices, the least resources. There is a ripple effect.
Writers become leaders, first within their own workshops, and then as organizers of new workshops.
A third Chicopee workshop will begin this fall. This means three generations of writing, three generations of leadership. AWAI holds at its core an ongoing commitment to our workshop participants. We work to develop leaders, and to bring that leadership into the organization. Workshop members serve on the Advisory Board, lead AWAI workshops, and serve as trainers for the Intensive Training program .