More Than a Creative Writing Program
Creative writing is one pathway into the deeper work of Liberando.
Through writing, artmaking, pláticas (conversations), cultural affirmation, and community-building, girls are invited to explore who they are, express what matters to them, and discover new possibilities for their lives.
Every part of the experience is designed with intention, from how participants are welcomed into the space to how their words and creative contributions are witnessed by others.
The result is a space where girls can feel seen, take creative risks, build confidence, and experience the power of using their voices in community.
What Students Experience
A Liberando session feels different from a traditional creative writing program.
Girls enter a warm, welcoming creative space filled with music, color, conversation, movement, writing, and art. They gather in a circle, participate in relationship-building activities, explore meaningful themes, and create original work grounded in their own ideas and experiences.
Throughout the program, participants are supported to:
- Explore identity, culture, language, relationships, dreams, and voice
- Experiment with creative writing and visual art without fear of “getting it wrong”
- Develop confidence expressing their ideas
- Listen to and affirm one another
- Form meaningful relationships within a small cohort
- Create and share work they feel proud of
Every session is intentionally designed to help girls leave feeling more connected to themselves, to one another, and to their creativity.
Girls do not need to consider themselves writers or artists before joining. Liberando is designed to help them discover what becomes possible when they are given the space, encouragement, and creative freedom to explore.
The Partnership Experience
Liberando is a fully facilitated program offered through separate middle and high school experiences, each intentionally designed to meet girls at their particular stage of adolescence.
Program at a Glance:
• Weekly on-site sessions
• Separate middle and high school cohorts
• Creative writing and visual arts experiences
• Small-cohort format
• Culturally relevant curriculum centering Latina adolescent experiences
• Bilingual openness and space for students’ full language practices
• All program materials provided
• Separate culminating experience
The specific schedule, cohort size, and culminating experience are developed in conversation with each partner.
Inside a Liberando Session
Although every session has its own theme, students encounter a consistent rhythm that helps cultivate trust, belonging, and creative freedom.
Welcome and Opening Circle
Participants transition into the space, reconnect with the group, and prepare to create.
Relationship-Building
Games, conversation, and collaborative low-stakes experiences help girls remove participation barriers and strengthen their connections with one another.
Plática and Creative Invitation
A facilitated conversation introduces the session’s theme using mentor texts and invites students to connect it to their lives, questions, and perspectives.
Writing and Artmaking
Girls create original work through accessible, guided writing and arts experiences.
Sharing and Affirmation
Participants are invited, but never forced, to share their work. Their peers practice listening, witnessing, and responding with care.
Closing Circle
The group reflects, celebrates what was created, and closes the session in community.
This intentional structure allows participants to know what to expect while giving each session room for curiosity, play, and discovery.
Designed for Confidence, Connection, and Voice
Liberando creates the conditions for girls to practice speaking, creating, and expressing themselves within a supportive community.
In our most recent work with middle school students, participants reported:
• 47% increase in confidence
• 84% left the program with improved public-speaking skills
• 80% report that annotating texts improved their reading comprehension
Liberando Nuestras Voces is demonstrating measurable growth in creative confidence, literacy engagement, and social-emotional well-being. Students are not only strengthening academic and expressive skills, they are developing a deeper sense of voice, identity, and connection within a culturally sustaining community.
These outcomes emerge through the accumulated experience of being listened to, encouraged, creatively challenged, and treated as someone whose ideas matter.
"I learned to be more comfortable with public speaking, this stayed with me because this space has made me truly realize that my voice does matter and I should use it confidently."
-Liberando student
"Liberando is so much more than just a creative and writing art program. During this time in middle school when girls are exploring who they are, Liberando has become a third space and more importantly a safe space. It's a space where our daughter and her peers have been given agency to share their voice."
-Liberando parent
A Culturally Relevant, Arts-Based Approach
Liberando centers Latina adolescent experiences and celebrates the cultural knowledge, languages, creativity, and perspectives girls carry with them.
Through the curation of mentor texts written by women of color authors and pláticas with the workshop facilitators, the girls are exposed to texts, themes, and activities designed to reflect their lived experiences.
Besides seeing themselves reflected in the content, the girls are mentored by our workshop facilitators, all current college students or recent grads. The facilitators share their college experience with the girls as they guide them in their writing, fostering a sense of connection and a college-going mentality.
The curriculum is rooted in the understanding that young people are already knowledgeable and creative. Our role is not to give them a voice, but to create the conditions in which they can recognize, strengthen, and use the voices they already possess.
Overview of Themes
- Our Stories/Nuestras Historias
- Finding our Voices
- Developing Healthy Relationships
- Being Bilingual and Bicultural
- Body Image
- Arte y Cultura
- Cultivating Joy
- Latinas in Education
- Why I write
While the program centers the experiences of Latina teens, all girls are welcome to participate.
A Fully Facilitated Partnership
Your organization is not purchasing a set of lesson plans or asking existing staff to implement another curriculum.
The Liberando team brings the experience to you.
Liberando Provides
• Experienced and trained program facilitators
• Fully facilitated creative writing and arts sessions
• Journals and program materials
• Culminating-experience
Partners Provide
• A consistent and appropriate program space
• A primary staff liaison
• Participant recruitment and registration
• Support with family communication
Together, we shape the partnership around your setting, students, calendar, and program goals.
Is Liberando Right for Your Community?
A Liberando partnership may be a strong fit if your school or organization wants to:
• Offer middle and/or high school girls a meaningful creative experience beyond the traditional school day
• Strengthen students’ confidence, expression, and sense of connection
• Provide culturally relevant programming that reflects students’ lives and communities
• Create a small-group space where girls can build relationships across differences
• Bring in an experienced facilitation team rather than asking existing staff to implement a new curriculum
• Offer students an experience that brings creativity, culture, and voice together
Partnerships are available for schools, school districts, expanded learning programs, youth centers, and community-based organizations.
About Liberando Nuestras Voces
Liberando Nuestras Voces is a creative writing and arts program centering Latina teen experiences while celebrating identity, language, and cultura.
Dr. Vianney Gavilanes founded Liberando to create spaces where adolescent girls can discover the power of their voices through writing, creativity, and community.
Liberando grew from her vision of creating the kind of space she needed as a six-year-old Spanish-speaking immigrant entering English-only classrooms: a space where girls’ languages, cultural knowledge, and voices would be recognized as sources of knowledge and power.
Today, Liberando brings that vision to life through intentionally facilitated experiences grounded in creativity, cultura, and cariño.
Dr. Vianney Gavilanes
Founder & Program Director
An educator, scholar, and writer, who brings over ten years of experience designing and facilitating culturally relevant learning experiences that help young people build confidence, connection, and creative expression.
Rosa García-Lemus
Lead Workshop Co-Facilitator
A Xicana escritora from East Los Ángeles. She enjoys bringing creative experimentation into her work with young Chicana Latinas. She values testimonio, using writing to connect personal stories to larger histories and utilize lived experience as a source of knowledge.
Giselle Resendiz
Workshop Co-Facilitator
She's a poet from North County SD establishing herself in the Bay Area. Currently she's entering her final year at UC Berkeley as a Chicanx Latinx Studies Major and a Creative Writing Minor. Giselle has always felt connected to poetry and creative outlets of expression since a young age and is honored to be a part of that for other young girls in the Bay. Entering into her second year with Liberando she hopes to continue to create a safe space for all of the girls who show up through our doors.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who can participate?
Liberando serves both middle and high school girls through age-specific cohorts. Liberando centers Latina adolescent experiences and celebrates Latine culture while welcoming girls of all backgrounds to participate.
Where can the program take place?
Liberando can be facilitated at schools, expanded learning sites, youth centers, and other community-based settings with an appropriate and consistent meeting space.
When is the program offered?
The program can be integrated into an expanded learning, after-school, or other youth-program schedule. Timing and availability are discussed with each prospective partner.
Do students need experience with writing or art?
No. Students do not need prior creative writing or visual arts experience. Activities are designed to be welcoming and accessible to participants with different interests, abilities, and levels of confidence.
Is this a curriculum our staff would implement?
No. School and organizational partners contract with Liberando for a fully facilitated experience. The Liberando team leads the sessions and provides the curriculum, materials, and program support.
How much does a Liberando partnership cost?
Each partnership is scoped and priced individually based on the length and format of the program, cohort size, and the specific needs of your organization.
During our initial conversation, we'll learn more about your students, goals, setting, and desired experience and recommend a partnership approach that aligns with those needs. From there, you'll receive a customized proposal outlining the scope and investment.