Write Here, Right Now

Aim

As our stretch target we are raising an extra £10,000 to deliver Intergenerational penpals workshop.

We are so grateful for all the incredible support and for helping us reach the target. We have just put a link to a film we made with Mountjoy school below to showcase some of the incredible projects we run at the charity. We have added this stretch target to the campaign as it will go directly into funding another workshop like this one. It is called Intergenerational penpals and it is where we bring young writers and elderly people together through letter writing culminating in a meet up and a cup of tea.

What is the problem

What are we actually fighting for?

Every day, the world around our children becomes more automated, more digital, more filtered by algorithms. Machines now write poems, paint pictures, and finish sentences before a child has even begun to think. The risk isn’t that AI is creative; it’s that children may stop believing they are!

What is the solution - creative writing!

At The Bank of Dreams & Nightmares, we exist to protect something fragile and irreplaceable: human imagination. For five years, we’ve given young people across West Dorset a free, welcoming space to write both during school and after it. We’ve reached more than 3,000 children through our creative writing programmes in over 30 schools, helping them turn their words into something real that their families can read, hear and hold.

How you can help

But this year, we’re facing an unexpected gap in grant income. To keep our work free and steady while we secure long-term funding, we need to raise £30,000. Without it, some sessions and publications may have to pause, just when children’s enjoyment of writing is at an all-time low across the South West. One of the key areas we are developing is our outreach program to target those young people who would benefit most from the work we offer. So part of this Crowdfunder will go to employing a new part time outreach coordinator to work closely with local agencies and organisations to make sure we are reaching those children and communities.

And while we champion imagination, our work also speaks to something bigger: how imagination connects to the planet we live on. When children write stories about rewilding, cliff erosion, or the loss of a favourite tree, they’re not just practising description. They’re learning empathy. They’re noticing change. They’re starting to care. The stories children write help their families notice what’s changing on their doorstep and take small, practical steps together to protect it. Imagination, after all, is the seed of all action.

When a young person recognises that they’ve created something remarkable—like a story good enough to be published—they start to believe, “If I can do that, what else can I do?”

Our work has grown strong roots, and we make a BIG difference.

In schools we ignite imagination through our progression workshops; Character Creation, Story-Making, and Speech Writing, encouraging children to explore their voice, shape their ideas, and make sense of the world around them.

In our clubs, we keep that spark alive. The Vault, our youth newspaper, gives 9–15 year-olds a platform to investigate their world. The Writers’ Account helps teenagers shape their voice into something powerful, bold and true. Podcasting Club gives quieter or neurodiverse children a place to belong and be heard. 

One parent told us that for her autistic son, “Podcasting has been the highlight of his week… it’s changed what he believes he’s capable of.”

Then come our big creative moments. Resonate champions young voices who may not normally be heard, in a moving performance of spoken word at The Bridport Literary festival. BankFest takes that energy even further with a three-day writing festival for 14-19 year-olds who might never have imagined that their stories mattered. Professional authors, lyricists and scriptwriters work with them, expanding their horizons and showing that a creative life is not just possible but powerful. These projects are not just enriching; they’re transformative.

Where your donation will go

Every pound you give helps keep young voices alive, curious and creating.

Your support funds the real, everyday magic that happens in our workshops, clubs and festivals. £10 helps a young person begin their writing journey. A gift of £50 helps us train new volunteers, our vital story mentors who sit beside each child, listen, encourage, and help their words take flight.

£100 sponsors a full creative writing workshop for a class of 30 children, providing every child with their own writing journal, pencils, professional guidance, and a finished piece of work to be proud of.

Larger gifts of £500 keep our creative home open, funding the space where our three after-school clubs meet each week to write, record and dream.

And for those who can go further, a £2,000 donation sponsors the publication of one of our school anthologies—Scandal, Rumours and Lies, Unexpected Tales or On Politics & Potatoes. You’ll make it possible for an entire class to see their stories in print, celebrate at a book launch, and hold in their hands the proof that their imagination matters.

However you choose to give, you’ll be helping children believe, “If I can do that, what else can I do?”

If we could bottle the energy at one of our book launches, the pride, the laughter, the disbelief at “I wrote that” we could light up the whole town. Help us keep that light burning. Help us keep young voices writing, questioning, imagining, and noticing the world that needs them. 

Because when a child finds their voice, they find their power, and they remind the rest of us what it means to be human.

So please donate now. We, and all the children we work with, would really appreciate it.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made