Our Programs

Workshops

Stop-Motion Project

About Workshops

In the evenings and on weekends, we offer a variety of free workshops for students right here in our writing lab. The topics range from academic essentials like SAT-prep and college-entrance essays, to more imaginative forms of writing like fiction, non-fiction, cartooning, and bookmaking. Each workshop is designed and taught by talented volunteers, many of them published authors, magazine founders, teachers, and filmmakers. Many workshops are stand-alone projects, and some are recurring, including our in-house newspaper, the Valencia Bay-farer, penned by student journalists aged eight through thirteen, and the Writing and Publishing Apprentices workshop for high school students aged thirteen through eighteen. Each summer, we host an intensive, two-week Young Authors’ workshop for Bay Area students entering grades ten through twelve. Students are teamed up with professional writers, poets, and spoken word artists to craft original work that they then share with their peers in a rigorous and supportive learning environment.

New Policy: In an effort to serve more students, we are asking you to sign your student up for no more than two workshops each season. If you sign up for two workshops but would like to be on the wait-list for others in the event that they don’t fill up, please email workshops@826valencia.org after you have received confirmation for your first two choices.

Workshop Registration

Online Registration: You can sign up for our workshops online at our calendar. Each workshop listed occurs once a week on the same day, at the same time, for the duration of the number of sessions indicated. Because each workshop will build upon the ideas learned in the previous session, students are asked to attend all sessions of a workshop. To enroll in a workshop:

  •  If you don’t have an account with us, go to the student registration page and set one up.
  • Browse the calendar to see our current workshop offerings. (Please note that the calendar only shows one month at a time.)
  • Find a workshop your student is interested in.
  • Click on the “Sign Up” button for that workshop.
  • You will receive an automated email thanking you for signing up for the workshop. This is not a confirmation that you have a space in the class.
  • Within a few days, you will receive a second automated email if your student is confirmed. Please don’t respond to these automated emails (they go nowhere!), and instead write to workshops@826valencia.org with any questions.

Confirmation: Once you get a confirmation email, we ask that you send us a $25 check made out to 826 Valencia in order to hold your place. This is used to ensure attendance and will only be cashed if your student does not attend (see Cancellation Policy) or if you choose to make it a donation. Please make the check out to 826 Valencia and write both the name of your student and the name of the workshop in the memo line, and indicated somewhere whether it is a donation (we will cash it) or a deposit (we won’t cash it). The check can be dropped off at 826 Valencia or can be mailed to:

Workshops
826 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

We ask that you get the check to us at least one week before the workshop begins.

Workshop Cancellation Policy

To ensure that our workshops benefit as many students as possible, we keep track of all cancellations, absences, and no-shows, and reserve the right to cash your $25 check in the case of a no-show or an insufficient cancellation. Please take the time to read our cancellation policy below.

Cancellation: If you inform us that your student will not be able to attend a workshop they are enrolled in at least 72 hours before the workshop begins, then we will not cash your $25 check. If you cancel less than 72 hours before the workshop begins, we will cash your check.

Absences: If you have signed up for a workshop and attend the first session but miss one of the later sessions, we will not cash your check. We understand that students get sick and that last minute scheduling changes crop up. However, we will keep track of any absences.

No-shows: If your student doesn’t attend the first session of a workshop that they are enrolled in, we will cash your $25 check.

Teaching a Workshop

If you are interested in teaching a workshop of your own, you can download how to submit a proposal, which will give you the information you need to draft and submit your own proposal.