In response to a question about what kids were most looking forward to as the school year started up again, Allison, a student at Flint Cultural Center Academy, had a somewhat surprising answer in the midst of other kids saying things like seeing friends again or joining sports teams: she was excited she would finally not have recess anymore.
Those types of answers are the sort of thing TiOra Turner, community relations manager for In the Beginning: 1st Ward Project, has come to expect from students in the Next Gen Pens creative writing group she facilitates monthly at Gloria Coles Flint Public Library. The program gives participants the space to comfortably organize and express their thoughts, even when they’re uncommon ones, and Allison had a good reason for not missing recess: she prefers quiet time, and playgrounds are notoriously loud places.
“For a lot of kids, they struggle expressing themselves and they also have a hard time writing,” Turner said. “So for them to be able to bring the two together, and just cross a milestone, I really just celebrate quietly in my head when I see it. Not everyone is going to write a New York Times Bestseller, but writing is something we all can learn that helps identify feelings and get them out.”
Next Gen Pens is one of several outreach programs In the Beginning runs to support the community. The organization’s mission is to engage in outreach and provide neighborhood resources, including mass-distribution of literature and information directly to residents by canvassing and directly through other organizations that serve the community.
The organization’s primary purpose is to serve youth, but they also have five key focus areas and initiatives: affordable housing, education, employment, financial literacy, and health and wellness.
“Outside of just the youth, we provide services and resources for adults as well, because the kids come from adults of course,” Turner said. “We create safe spaces, provide mentorship, and offer services and resources that help everyone grow.”
In fact, even though Next Gen Pens is geared toward young people, Turner says participants have included people ranging in age from elementary school kids all the way up through adults. The activities and curriculum is beneficial to anyone who wants to strengthen their ability to express emotions and thoughts through writing.
“The kids love it, but even the parents participate,” Turner said. “I get parents who haven’t done this in a long time and they’ll come with their kids and say it felt good to kind of just sit down and be in their own thoughts for a little bit, just kind of recenter themselves.”
Part of Turner’s passion for Next Gen Pens comes from her own background. Turner, who attended Flint Northwestern and then Genesee Early College and is currently pursuing a degree at the University of Michigan-Flint, is a self-published author and is passionate about writing as an artform. She previously worked as a paraprofessional and regularly experienced a common occurrence for educators: encountering kids who say they “hate to write.” Helping flip that perspective is one of her favorite aspects of Next Gen Pen.
“The immediate reaction is, ‘I don’t like to write,’” Turner said. “But the thing I love about creative writing, and what I love to share with the kids, is there are no rules, there’s more than one way to do this.”
She points out writers and artists who use their own creativity with how they spell words or convey meaning, and teaches kids that they can still get their thoughts across without necessarily following every conventional spelling or grammar rule.
“That’s how they’re expressing themselves, so it takes the pressure off of getting everything right,” Turner said. “One of the kids I had was trying to write something and said, ‘I hate writing.’ But he started over so many times because he said he wanted to make sure he got it done the way he wanted. I was like, ‘I thought you hated writing!’”
Next Gen Pens sessions are monthly and started in April of this year. Participants play games, get writing prompts, share their thoughts, and also do activities that they can discuss – a recent one included planting seeds and learning about how they grow. In addition to back to school, they’ve also written about holidays and other life experiences or events. They hold sessions in the library as a way to help familiarize kids and families with that space and the resources it offers.
In the Beginning has Facebook and Instagram pages that share information about upcoming programs and events, and Next Gen Pen sessions are advertised on the library’s calendar.
“We want to just help them stay connected to their creative side,” Turner said. “A lot of our youth are at high risk, and are prone to what they are used to seeing on a day-to-day basis. So when they come here, we help them cope in another way, show them a way of getting feelings out of them in a creative space. Next Gen Pens is designed to help young people express themselves, build confidence, and be recognized for their creativity in a safe and encouraging environment.”
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