Please help us raise funds to offer bursaries for youth (ages 11 to 19) to attend WordsWorth, our week-long sleepover creative writing residencies this summer at Red Deer Polytechnic. 

No kid should have to miss out on creative development opportunities because of financial barriers to entry. Please consider supporting our campaign to raise funds to allow us to offer bursaries for youth who need it most!  

WordsWorth 2025: OURTIME

What is WordsWorth?

• WordsWorth is a week-long sleepover creative writing residency for young artists who believe in the power of words and storytelling. Campers will be completely immersed in the creative and diverse world of writing. Guided by established and respected artist-instructors, the young artists will experience writing through fiction, nonfiction, poetry, spoken word, music, movement, and more.
• The experiences don’t begin and end with the classes; WordsWorth is a place where young artists come together to celebrate writing through friendship, campfire stories and songs, concerts, open mic sessions, hikes, haiku, and semi-competitive games outside of class.
• It is a place where curious and passionate humans explore the power of words, community, and enthusiastic support for one another’s well being. It is a place where people take joyful risks in expressing themselves through their art and in the way they treat one another. It is a place that has fostered life long relationships and invites people to consider the vast possibilities of the way our world can look.
• Above all, it is a place that reminds us of the power of words and to grow the way we use them across all genres of written and spoken word practices.

A Note from WordsWorth's Director, Colin Matty

During my involvement for the past 13 years, I have been renewed each summer by the way campers and staff alike bring their whole selves to bear with vigour and compassion. The Writers Guild of Alberta is a not-for-profit that strives to keep programs like this one accessible to people of all backgrounds. 

WordsWorth is a special place that I hope will continue to support youth and working artists of many disciplines, to foster the future of the arts in Alberta, and to develop the imagination of all who walk through its doors. 

It is with humility and gratitude that I invite you to participate in the future of WordsWorth. Please, take this opportunity to make a contribution to the wellbeing of young writers the future of the arts in Alberta. Your donations will be used to establish a bursary fund for people who would otherwise be unable to attend due to financial constraint.

Consider the value of welcoming communities and positive mentorship in your own life, and I believe you will recognize the value in keeping places like WordsWorth around for future generations to come.

Good Health and Good Spirits,
Colin Matty
Director of WordsWorth

We hope you'll consider supporting sending young writers to WordsWorth. This campaign is part of a government matching program: the Alberta Government will match 50% of all donations, stretching your contribution even farther!