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Sustainable Communities, Sustainable Lives: Urban Youth Perspectives in an Out-of-School Writers’ Club

This qualitative study documents urban youth participation in a community-based out-of-school youth writing program that cultivated participants’ dialogues, identities, and writings. The study documents participants’ perspectives as contributors and beneficiaries of a neighborhood revitalization effort. Analysis of excerpts from breakout sessions, whole group discussions, and integrated writing samples reveal how participation in dialogic activities, multimodal texts, and popular culture funds of knowledge cultivated participants’ confidence in appropriating their voices. Participants linked their voices and identities to their writing, demonstrated confidence as change agents in the process of neighborhood revitalization, and revealed uncertainty about long-term community sustainability.