The Missoula Writing Collaborative

October 23, 2014

How can creative writing be used to help children connect with and understand their natural and urban environment?

That's the question the Missoula Writing Collaborative set out to answer through the Writing Lives project. You can read about this and more than 60 other arts-based community development projects on the National Endowment for the Arts' new online resource called Exploring Our Town.

The Writing Lives in Our Town project brought creative writing to every fourth grade classroom at the nine Missoula County Public Schools elementary schools for two years. This instruction by professional writers was accomplished through collaboration with classroom teachers, and it extended into middle and high school classrooms, incorporating the knowledge and leadership of nature-focused organizations such as the Watershed Education Network, the Montana Natural History Center, and the MPG Ranch.

Kids connected creatively with each other, their town, and the whole outdoors, not only in school, but also through free weekend workshops, public readings, walking tours of historic downtown neighborhoods, excursions to isolated wilderness areas, and radio appearances, parades, panel discussions, blog posts, Skype exchanges, museum visits, and more. They went outside and wrote their hearts out. They came back in and learned something about themselves.

Thank you to the City of Missoula for sponsoring the Writing Lives project.

Thank you to Missoula County Public Schools for serving as primary partner.

Thank YOU, Missoula! It's all right here.

Writing Lives in Our Town.