Volunteer for the 2021 Young Authors’ Book Project

826 Valencia is committed to amplifying the voices of Black youth on issues that matter to them. This year we’re excited to engage Black middle and high school students in this year’s Young Authors’ Book Project, in a first-of-its-kind collaboration with multiple schools.

Students will be reading Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi as a central text during a course called Culture and Identity for Students of African Descent.

Join us as a volunteer tutor for this year’s Young Author’s Book Project and work closely with these students over the course of five weeks as they write their own pieces on the topic of being Black in America. Jason Reynolds will be visiting the class and writing the foreword to the publication. This project is held in collaboration with SFUSD’s African American Achievement and Leadership Initiative (AAALI) and is part of 826 Valencia’s Black Students Initiative programming.

This project will follow an affinity group model, and we are specifically recruiting volunteers who identify as Black to serve as writing coaches for the students.

To become a tutor for this program, we ask that you:

  • Reach out to volunteer@826valencia.org to express your interest
  • Become a trained 826 Valencia Volunteer by January (sign up here!)
  • Complete a LiveScan background check
  • Participate in online training specific to this project
  • Commit to a weekly shift for the 5-week duration of the project (tentative schedule below)

The project will run January 11th through February 19th, 2021. We ask you to commit to one of these shifts:

Mondays, 10:20 – 11:35 am (Willie L. Brown Jr. Middle School)
Tuesdays, 11:45 am – 1:45 pm (Willie L. Brown Jr. Middle School) ** highest need
Thursdays, 9:00 – 10:25 am ( Mission High School) ** highest need
Fridays, 10:00 am – 12:15 pm (MLK Middle School)

If you are new to 826 Valencia and not yet a registered volunteer, please fill out this volunteer application form and indicate that you are interested in becoming a YABP tutor with us this January.

Thank you for supporting our young authors through this truly special opportunity!