CU London Dagenham hosts inspiring young writers

Once again, CU London has opened its doors to the local community as Dagenham campus played host to the ‘Write Back’ Book Launch on Tuesday 4 January.

Nine students from various schools in Barking & Dagenham are part of the ‘Write Back’ 10-week project, which helps young people to build their independent voices through writing. The students came to CU London's Reading Room for their very own book launch this week, with family members and teachers joining the event via Zoom.

‘Write Back’ is a local charity that runs programmes out of the Future Youth Zone in Dagenham. Local teacher Sam Norwood set up the charity in 2015 and is the first UK-based Freedom Writer teacher – one of several hundred educators across the world who promote a culture of acceptance and diversity in classrooms from Rwanda to Palestine.

The charity runs ten-week programmes for hand-selected young people to build self-esteem and community by providing them with an outlet for their creativity. It showcases these stories at a Graduation Ceremony and then produces a paperback that is sent to all local libraries.

The event was run in collaboration with CU London’s Widening Participation team, which supports disadvantaged and underrepresented young people into higher education. The young writers were treated to a tour of the facilities at Dagenham during their visit to encourage them to consider university.

Sarah Dorrian, Regional WP Specialist, said of the event:

CU London’s WP Programme will be collaborating further with the graduates of the ‘Write Back’ project over the next few months, bringing them onto campus to run Higher Education sessions alongside their writing workshops.

Find out more about the ‘Write Back’ project and Widening Participation at CU London.