We can hardly believe it—Uptown Stories is 10 years old!

We started with a simple idea: that young people in our uptown community should be empowered to write and publish their own stories. Instead of forcing them what to write and how to write it, we should equip them with the tools professional authors and artists use, and then give them the freedom to write what they want.

A decade later, we have alumni who are upending the publishing industry, working in the halls of Congress, bettering their communities, teaching the next generation, and learning new ways to tell stories. By empowering these young people as writers, we are changing their lives and changing the world.

When you write your story, you reach for inspiration around you. The same is true for the thousands of kids who have been part of Uptown Stories’ 362 workshops over these many years. All the experiences, feelings, questions, and thoughts about themselves and the world have spilled out in the most creative and amazing ways over the 14,697 pages of our 31 anthologies. We couldn’t be more proud of our young writers, and we love that so many of them are still part of Uptown Stories as volunteers, teaching assistants, even donors.

Yes, we’re excited about being 10—what kid isn’t excited about double-digits? But we’re already focused on the next ten years, and all the young people in our community who need a place to write their world. Please donate today in celebration of all we have accomplished, and for all the children left who have stories they need to tell.

The Pay-What-You-Can Tuition Fund

Funds raised through donations will go towards our Pay-What-You-Can (PWYC) Tuition Fund. This will allow us to continue to offer every workshop in our catalog with the same promise of accessibility upon which Uptown Stories was founded. Every seat in an Uptown Stories workshop has a Full Tuition value that reflects the care and energy we invest in our curriculum, but in keeping with our promise, we allow every family to pay only what they can towards that amount. Since our inception in 2014, nearly 80% of our students have used PWYC funds to support their tuition.

We've kept our promise of accessibility, thanks to the generous support of our advocates and friends. Your donation to Uptown Stories will go directly into that PWYC Fund. Every dollar will be used to supplement the tuition of a student discovering their voice and expanding their imagination in a diverse community of writers and storytellers.

Donors who give at least $250 will receive an Uptown Stories tote bag.

Donors who give at least $500 will receive an Uptown Stories t-shirt.

Donors who give at least $1,000 will receive an Uptown Stories sweatshirt.

Want to learn more about Uptown Stories? You can visit our website at UptownStories.org.

Thank you so much for your support. It means everything to us, our students, and our community.

Happy Birthday Uptown Stories!

Help us celebrate 10 years of empowering young people to write their own stories.