EngAGE partners with Write Around Portland to provide safe and supportive environments for residents to focus on personal growth to share their stories.
Stacey’s Journey of Resilience and Empowerment Through Writing
Patton Home resident, Stacey, stepped into facing and overcoming extraordinary challenges in her life, including homelessness, abuse, and the difficult path to finding proper mental health support. Her courage to seek support and to keep moving forward is a testament to her resilience and inner strength.
Throughout late winter and into spring, Stacey became part of a powerful creative experience. Through Write Around Portland writers workshop, she faced her challenges head on. This program provided her with a safe, supportive space to explore her story, and connect with others, and develop her voice as a writer.
Her hard work paid off. This June, Stacey stood up before a live audience at the Author Celebration and read her story aloud. That moment wasn’t just significant for her, but a transformative one for everyone present. Her words carried deep emotion and truth, offering hope, healing, and inspiration.
Write Around Portland played a vital role in helping Stacey find a creative way to tell her story with confidence. The workshop gave her a willingness to share her skills and nurtured her voice which has made a lasting impact.
Patton Home is incredibly proud of Stacey, not only for what she accomplished, but for the strength it took to get there. Her story is a reminder that with the right support, compassionate communities, and a safe space to create incredible transformation is possible.
Finding Her Voice: Michelle’s Journey Through Write Around Portland
This spring marked a quiet yet powerful milestone for Cascadian Terrace Resident Michelle. She returned to the Write Around Portland workshop where she spent twelve weeks weaving words into stories, community into connection, and doubt into confidence.
Michelle calls herself “the most reluctant artist,” a title she wears with a kind of humble honesty. But every week, she showed up. Pen in hand, heart on sleeve, she leaned into the unknown. “I just really wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to get one-on-one writing support,” she said. And so she did—fully and fearlessly.
As the weeks passed, something shifted. With each writing prompt and shared reading, her voice grew steadier. Encouraged by kind facilitators and inspired peers, Michelle found not just the structure of a story, but her own story—one worth telling, one worth celebrating.
That growth came to light during the culminating Author Celebration, where participants shared their work before a live audience of friends, family, and fellow writers. Michelle was chosen to read first. She took the stage with grace and courage, opening the evening with a voice once hesitant, now full of purpose.
In that moment, the reluctant artist became the brave storyteller, proof that sometimes, all it takes is a little space, a little support, and a lot of heart to turn a whisper into a voice that soars.
Write Around Portland is dedicated to the transformative power of writing and the well-being that follows from respectful, shared community experiences. Their programs are designed to show participants that they are already writers. That their stories are worthwhile not just for their content but how they’re told. They bring our programming directly to the people who need it, writing with them in convenient places where they already live or receive services.
EngAGE changes lives by transforming affordable senior, family, and intergenerational housing communities into vibrant centers of learning, wellness, and creativity.
