Powell River youth are making news with their new initiative to provide unique written content and blog posts that will help businesses communicate with the public.
Motive, Word, & Pen is a non-profit organization made up of youth from grade 11 to fourth-year university students. It gives youth around BC the opportunity to gain writing skills and better their portfolios. All proceeds made by the organization will be donated to a charity picked by its members.
Abby Head, who grew up in Powell River and is in her second year at the University of British Columbia, co-founded the company with her friend Kishoore Ramanathan.
“My friend and I were both brainstorming ways to support causes that we were passionate about,” said Abby, “and then we started talking about our previous roles in content creation and how we could make that into something.”
Abby said the type of businesses that would profit from their services would be “small or local businesses that want to advertise through written content they otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford without a full-time content creator on their team.”
The company is made up of 21 youth from around BC who work for the company on a volunteer basis.
Abby said that although the employees work as volunteers, the organization will “provide them a sort of mentorship and give them reference letters for university or grad school applications.”
Eden Head, who is entering her final year at the University of Victoria, heard about the organization from Abby, her sister, and saw it as a great initiative to join to help expand her writing skills, as well as to help support local businesses and give back to charity.
“It seemed like a really cool initiative and I wanted to get involved,” said Eden. “I’m not really involved in a lot of other writing programs so I thought it would be a good way to expand my comfort zone.”
As the senior editor for the Vancouver Island/Sunshine Coast district, Eden’smain role is to edit articles as they come to her. She said she hopes “to gain writing and editing experience, as well looking to help out local charities and provincial charities.”
Abby reached out to current Brooks Secondary School grade 11 student Madeline Burt about the opportunity. Burt, one of the junior editors for the Vancouver Island/Sunshine Coast district, said she is looking forward to the opportunity.
“For me, I really like writing and I really like English, so I think this would be a good opportunity for me to improve my writing skills and make new connections throughout BC,” said Burt. “I also think it is important to give back locally and support local businesses.”
As a junior editor, Burt’s job will be to write all of the sample articles for her district before they are edited by the senior editor.
Abby is looking forward to learning the ins and outs of starting a company like this, as she has been dreaming of starting her own business since she was little. She said she has had to learn many new skills, such as web design, financial planning and running a business social media account, but for her, helping local businesses and charities, as well uniting youth in the art of writing, is all worth the time invested.
For more information on Motive, Word, & Pen, where to send business enquiries or apply to join the team, go to motivewordandpen.org, or find the initiative on Facebook or Instagram, @motive.word.pen.
