History of 916 Ink
In 2010, a group of individuals interested in lifting up youth voices in Sacramento, including Katie McCleary, Michael Spurgeon, Chris Baltzley, and representatives from the Sacramento Public Library, paid a visit to a creative literacy and tutoring nonprofit in San Francisco. Inspired by what they found, they returned to Sacramento determined to start their own adventure. The initial group of founders determined that Katie McCleary would take on the role as Founding Executive Director, while Michael Spurgeon and Chris Baltzley would launch the Board of Directors (what we at 916 Ink call our Board of Dreamers).
From the beginning, two things were established as crucial to 916 Ink's own method: that we would focus on group workshops rather than one-on-one writing support, and that publishing youth voices in printed anthologies would be a primary focus. The workshop method was then determined to be adapted from the Amherst Writers and Artist’s method (AWA), as established by Pat Schneider, to promote empowerment through creative writing with use of specific feedback guidelines.
From an all-volunteer crew, hand-stapled zines, and a shoestring budget, we are thrilled to now have nine full-time staff, one AmeriCorps VISTA member, and around twelve part-time office staff, reading tutors, and workshop facilitators. We've published 300 professionally bound books and have served 4,589 youth (as of October 2021). We're so proud of how we've grown in such a short time, while always remaining true to the vision and inspiration of our original founders.
Here are some of the moments that stand out in our history:
2011: Workshops began in that summer, with an all-volunteer crew in collaboration with The Salvation Army and local libraries. Paper zines were produced from these early workshops.
2012: 916 Ink was awarded 501(c)3 status, which allowed it to increase its fundraising efforts and hire its first paid staff.
2013:
That April, 916 Ink published its first professionally bound book, Monsters and Mayhem, written by the students from Capitol Heights Academy.
We partnered with Sacramento County Probation to begin programming in youth corrections facilities.
2014: The organization continued to expand into new schools.
2015:
An influx of new funding allowed 916 Ink to realize its dream of opening a whimsical creative writing palace, the Imaginarium, as part of the Maple Community Center initiative led by La Familia.
We reached a milestone of 1,500 students served and published our 50th book!
2016: We began holding summer camps and after-school drop-in programming out of the Imaginarium, as we simultaneously continued expanding into more schools.
2017:
Founding Executive Director Katie McCleary stepped down to pursue new endeavors and personal projects. Ian Hadley was hired and remains Executive Director today.
We reached a milestone of 4,000 students served and published our 100th book!
2019: We launched programming with the young people in the Stockton Department of Justice schools.
2020: With funding by the Arata Brothers Trust and additional support from Social Venture Partners, we launched a new chapter of 916 Ink with a reading tutoring pilot program, called Read On!
We reached a milestone of 5,000 students served and published our 200th book!
2022: Read On! Tutoring Program launches in-person tutoring at 4 South Sacramento Elementary Schools
Also in 2022: We launched our AmeriCorps program as a join venture with Square Root Academy! 17 AmeriCorps members served students with Literacy and Math Tutoring as well as Creative Writing and Digital Art Workshops!
