Every voice matters like each grain.

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Unbroken Wheat Project:

Unhoused Youth of Montrose Poetry Anthology

Our founder and intern volunteers work with the unhoused youth of Montrose (between the ages of 13-24, LGBTQIA2S+ & BIPOC, by majority). The youth are provided a series of opportunities within writing sessions over the span of several months to write poems that allow self-expression, creativity, and more. The youth are paid ten dollars per poem that are collected and anthologized altogether each year. The print copies are sold to help sustain the project. Any revenue that exceeds “need for print” costs of the next volume go back to aiding the youth.

With money saved from a previous fundraiser and with assistance from Public Poetry here in Houston, Anthology Vol. II/ III will go to print in August and arrive by late August 2026.

In late August 2026, we will hold a private party and release for the youth of Montrose. In September, we will start circulating copies of Unbroken Wheat Anthology Vol. II/ III at local bookstores in Houston and the Greater Houston area.

The below video space will have a recording of the youth’s poetry repped by mentors in July 2026.

We have one more summer grassroots fundraiser in July 2026 to help us kick off the new season of generating poems for Vol. IV.

3% Cover the Fee

Why give?

For the longest time our founder, and other donors in Houston and abroad, have helped us continue to do what we do. Any costs unmet are put up by the founder’s own income based on a teacher salary. With the NEA also no longer giving funds to Creative Writing Projects, this also impacts the support for the time being.

We love it when the unhoused youth discover they get to write poems they will be compensated for and that they will be published poets. The Unbroken Wheat Project runs at about the cost of one grand each year. Five hundred dollars go to generating 50 poems by the unhoused youth. Another five hundred goes to printing and shipping costs for 100 copies of the anthology to arrive to us in Houston. We hope in time to do more.

We seek to amplify those that often go unheard or are looked over, and this core part of our mission is met by The Unbroken Wheat Project. Someday, we hope that this project employs / pays some of the core youth at the center to design and edit and plan the anthology. We want to give them an outlet for self-expression and creativity, a stream of income or money, and entrepreneurial skills.

Giving FAQs

  • Absolutely! We are all about transparency and want you to know the impact you make. Whether it’s via a private email message to you or our quarterly newsletter on our progress, we want you to know how we strive to amplify others via poetry.

  • There are several ways one can help locally or from afar. If you are in the Houston, TX area, we often need writers and poets that can be part of our fundraisers as readers.

    Even if you’re not comfortable with presenting and reading work before an audience, we have some behind the scenes volunteer work available.

    If you’re nowhere near us, sharing about our mission and extending the news of donations needed helps. Awareness is empowerment.

  • Yes. We have reached out to vendors and local businesses for support and have had some luck with that. We are also in the process of applying for grants to help us grow.