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Simply put, 826 Valencia is dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their writing skills, and to helping teachers get their students excited about the writing. Our work is based on the understanding that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success and that great leaps in learning can be made when skilled tutors work one-on-one with students.

We offer a variety of free programs and services throughout the school year and summer months including drop-in tutoring, field trips, specialized workshops, in-school assistance, and extensive student publishing. Our drop-in tutoring program provides students with homework help from knowledgeable tutors, and up to four times a week we welcome an entire class for a morning of high energy learning in our specialized field trips. Our workshops are project-based and cover a variety of areas that schools can’t typically include in their curriculum, such as cartooning, college entrance essay writing, journalism, SAT prep, and starting a ‘zine. We dispatch teams of volunteers into local schools at a teachers’ behest to provide one-on-one assistance to students as they tackle various projects. Through all of our programs students have the opportunity to publish their writing in an array of publications ranging from smaller chapbooks and ‘zines to professional-quality books with a national audience.

Whether the students are working in the realm of fiction, nonfiction, or English as a second language, we are here to help them explore their love of writing, and to help students better express their ideas through the written word.

In addition to our founding site at 826 Valencia in San Francisco, we also have 826 chapters in NYC, Los Angeles, Michigan, Seattle, and Chicago. Please take a look at our national video (12 MB) to catch a glimpse of the work we do at our 826 sites around the country.

“Teens once ‘Waiting to be Heard’ blossom in print”

By Jane Ganahl, Chronical Staff Writer
SFgate.com
Saturday, May 15, 2004

Courtney King turns to Page 9 of her spanking-new book and heaves a satisfied sigh. There it is: her first published work. And she’s only 18.

“Its exciting,” she says, not taking her eyes off the page. “It’s like something new is starting in my life.” read more>>

"A heartwarming work of literary altruism/Author Dave Eggers cultivates new generation of writers in the Mission”

By Jane Ganahl, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle
Friday, August 2, 2002

Dave Eggers, one of the brightest writing stars in the literary firmament, could be enjoying the high life offered an author of his growing stature: the parties, the talk shows, the lucrative speeches.

Instead, the 32-year-old best-selling author of "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" commutes every day from his Marin County home for an unpaid job at the 826 Valencia writing lab, investing his time and considerable fortune to help less privileged young people learn the craft that has fueled his career.

Named for its address in the Mission District, 826 Valencia is a unique educational work space for kids ages 8 to 18 who want to improve their writing skills through free tutoring, or learn new ones in workshops that range from cartooning to computers. read more>>



“Projects for a new American Literacy: Four local organizations rework the arithmetic of reading and writing”

By David Moisi
lit, Guardian Literary Supplement
May, 2004

READING MIGHT BE America's favorite pastime if not for the fact that "reading a book requires a degree of active attention and engagement," as Dana Gioia, chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, puts it in the introduction to "Reading at Risk," a survey about America's reading habits. Released last June, the survey concludes that we are facing an imminent cultural crisis. The percentage of adult Americans who read literature has dropped dramatically over the past 20 years, with not quite 47 percent of Americans saying they engaged in literary reading in the past year. read more>>