Grow. Write. Now.
Creating The Telling Room’s Next Home Today.
Right now, The Telling Room is at a threshold.
In September of 2026, we will step into our next home, put our pens and pencils to the blank page, and write our way forward into the future. Dedicated to providing youth with opportunities for growth through the literary arts, we’re proud to hold a place as a beloved organization in our communities and our field. Now we’re poised to become more: An institution leading the critical and important work of youth empowerment and arts engagement.
The Telling Room has built a foundation that’s enabled our organization to grow continually as we seek to nurture youth aspirations and creativity. Through our current strategic plan, we’ve worked to strengthen our systems and center our culture of learning so that our team, the youth we work with, and the broader Telling Room community are holistically supported. Our first theory of change names that in order for the impacts of our programming to be realized, certain conditions need to be in place: A space where students can explore who they are and an environment that values self-expression as well as community. Central to both is cultivating an active sense of belonging—a sense of home. To inhabit and bring about this all-important sense of home, we require two foundational pillars that make our work with young writers possible: Our People and Our Place.
Now we’ve arrived at the doorway to our future. The next step? To take a big leap: Creating a special fund that will support these two key pillars as we elevate our organization. And we need our whole Telling Room community to help us make this threshold jump!
Alum Evana Wakati shares about her experience with The Telling Room in the Young Writers & Leaders program through an original poem. Video by David Meiklejohn.
Our People and Our Place—taken together—provide a sturdy structure during this pivotal time for The Telling Room.
Just as importantly, they set us up to keep growing into the future. And they are crucial to achieving one of our key outcomes: that youth gain access to programs where they can feel supported in a sense of home and have agency to explore and cultivate their voices. Your contribution to this fund will allow us to strengthen these pillars and achieve the urgently-needed impact of our work: A world where youth are more empowered and equipped to realize their individual potential and position themselves and their communities for success.
Elevate & Support Our People
Our staff create spaces that invite curiosity and help youth feel at home —whenever and wherever they spend time in any of our programs.
Launch us into the most ambitious phase of our multi-year plan to advance our people, talent, and culture: Our first-ever compensation philosophy and paired compensation program, the goal of which is to support our ability to recruit, hire, and retain employees who share our mission, vision, and values. This program is foundational to our continuing efforts to align our organizational priorities with our values and strategy and achieve our operational, financial, and growth goals. It maps staffing and compensation through creating a multi-year compensation and benefits plan responsive to regional market studies and grounded in our values.
Secure and Create Our Place.
Creating a sense of home, of belonging, of possibility, is paramount to all we do.
Help us “move house” into our next space, carrying the sturdy foundation we have built with us to Washington Avenue in Portland’s vibrant East Bayside/Munjoy Hill neighborhood. One of the most exciting features of this space is that its larger footprint and location will open up new possibilities and room for growth. We are also thrilled to have secured this space for the next 15 years under our lease agreement. We’ve taken great care to find our next home and plan for a sustainable future that will support all the new writers and words about to flow in and out of its doors.
Be Part of the Plot
Your support will make an immediate and lasting difference to elevate our people and secure our place at a transformational time for The Telling Room.
Our Goal: To raise $1,000,000 for the Grow. Write. Now. fund by June 30th, 2029
If you’d like to contribute to this dedicated fund today or learn more, contact Executive Director Kristina Powell: kristina@tellingroom.org
More About Our New Home
We will continue to offer our scheduled summer programming at 225 Commercial Street through August 31st as we prepare to wish a fond farewell to our current space, whose brick walls have been shaped over the years with prose, poems, and the power of youth voices. In the fall, we’ll be kicking off afterschool programs at our new home at:
55 Washington Avenue, Suite E
Portland, ME 04101
Take a Look Inside 55 Washington Avenue
Our Grow. Write. Now. Campaign Committee
Matty Oates — Chair, Board Member
Susan Conley — Co-Founder, Advisory Board Member
Sara Corbett — Co-Founder, Advisory Board Member
Sara Crisp — Board Member
Matt Grondin — Board Member
Rylan Hynes — Staff
Celine Kuhn — Advisory Board Member
Emily O’Neil — Staff
Michael Paterniti — Co-Founder, Advisory Board Member
Kristina Powell — Executive Director
Sarah Schneider — Staff
Sonya Tomlinson — Staff
Debbie Weil — Board Member
Nick Whiston — Staff