WriterCoach Connection

April showers bring...a new WCC newsletter

WriterCoach Connection is full of good news these days—our expansion to Richmond, our upcoming events, and our ever-growing opportunities to coach. We want to share all that news with you!

The first enewsletter has just been sent to all our WCC fans. We plan to send it four to six times a year: just enough to keep you on top of the most interesting WCC news without cluttering your inbox. We hope you'll continue to stay subscribed even if you're no longer a coach—so that you can stay tapped into your community and the program that you've helped to grow!  

If you'd like to be on our mailing list but didn't get the newsletter, view the newsletter, and please sign up so that you receive the next one. 

Christine McGuinness 

At Mills College: more WriterCoach Connection volunteer recruiting

Oakland Volunteer Coordinator Karen Larson and her redoubtable band of volunteer recruiters were at it for the second time in three days on Monday, March 12, setting up shop at the Mills College Internship Fair. She and WCC volunteers Nick Keefe, Anne Steinberg, and Kent Wright attracted 15 signups from undergraduate and graduate students interested in WCC for this fall. Valuable outreach!

Here are Anne and Nick, ready for business:

 

Bob Menzimer

Lots of WriterCoach Connection action at the Oakland Volunteer Fair

On Saturday, March 10, WCC Oakland Volunteer Coordinator Karen Larson and a cadre of WCC compatriots set up shop behind the WriterCoach Connection table at the annual Oakland Volunteer Fair, at City Hall. The air filled with conversation about writing support as volunteers checked out how to sign up for coach training and how to help the program in a variety of other ways.

Many thanks to Karen and to her loyal associates Mary Ann Benson, Ellen Shaffer, and Ken Yee for helping to spread the word!

Here's Karen in action, a blur of enthusiasm, as usual:

Photo by Mary Ann Benson

Bob Menzimer

WCC helps prepare West County students for life after high school

WriterCoach Connection is getting bigger again in West Contra Costa County next fall, with a pilot program at Richmond High School. As part of its expanding role in West County, Community Alliance for Learning, the nonprofit parent of WriterCoach Connection, is participating in a range of education initiatives with the school district and with other nonprofit organizations. 

One of those initiatives in an active role in the new West County College Access Network (WCCAN), a broad consortium of organizations and programs brought together by the West Contra Costa Public Education Fund (The Ed. Fund). WCCAN is formulating a variety of strategies to support improved access to post-secondary education for West County students.

Because of CAFL's expanding role in West County, WCC volunteers have opportunties to offer direct help to West County students beyond writer coaching. Last year, several of our coaches attended a Scholar's Workshop, sponsored by The Ed. Fund, at which we helped students craft personal statements in support of scholarships from donors. This year, we'll be inviting our coaches to help students prepare personal statements for college applications at the District's Getting Ready for College and Career Conference on Saturday, March 17.

Our presence in West Contra Costa County was a long time coming and it means a great deal to us. We relish the opportunity to engage West County students and teachers in a variety of productive ways.

Bob Menzimer

WriterCoach Connection in the business community

In October, we joined a group of fellow nonprofit organizations at an employee outreach event sponsored by Dreyer's Ice Cream, in association with the Dreyer's parent company Nestle, U.S.A., for the corporation's Community CARE Campaign.

The event offered an opportunity present information about WCC to Dreyer's corporate employees, who are invited to donate to a selected nonprofit program a day's pay and then become eligible for a 50% match from the Nestle Foundation.

On hand to present WCC to Dreyer's employees were  WCC Oakland Site and Volunteer Coordinator Karen Larson (second from right, below) and Community Alliance for Learning board member Shelli Fried (right, below). The lunch-hour event was overcast and drippy, but enthusiasm among Dreyer's employees was sunny and bright!

Bob Menzimer