Working with Teen Writers

A great model for others to follow or in which to get involved, the Pongo Publishing Teen Writing Project is a volunteer, nonprofit effort with Seattle teens who are in jail, on the streets, or in other ways leading difficult lives. Pongo helps these young people express themselves through poetry and other forms of writing and publish annual anthologies of their work.

PONGO FUN FACTS:
*This is Pongo’s 14th year.
*Pongo currently has two projects, one at juvenile detention in Seattle and one at the state psychiatric hospital for children in Tacoma.
*Pongo currently has 11 volunteers.
*Pongo has collected 286 surveys from our writers over the last three years, and one-third have previously not written at all or have previously written just a little.
*On the surverys, 100% said they enjoyed writing, 99% said they were proud of their writing, 66% said they wrote about things they don’t normally talk about, 91% said they plan to write in the future when life is difficult.
*Since 2000, Pongo has worked with over 4,000 teens (including 1,800 in individual sessions).
*Pongo has published close to 500 teens in 12 poetry books.
*Pongo has given away 11,800 of our poetry books to youth, agencies, judges, libraries, and others.