Our story
Our story begins in 2009, when Jenna Williams and Lachlann Carter founded the not-for-profit organisation Pigeons. Inspired by internships at 826 Valencia in San Francisco, Pigeons began delivering creative publishing programs to primary school students in Melbourne’s inner-west.
The first program, Pigeon Letters, placed upper-primary students in a collaborative partnership with well-known and award-winning Australian children’s book authors. The resulting works were published in Pigeon Letters: Stories in the Post. By 2012, over 300 children and young people had benefited from programs like Pigeon Letters, supported by donations of time and money from more than 100 authors, volunteers, publishing professionals, supporters and project partners who, like us, believe in the power of literacy to transform young lives.
Throughout all of these projects, it became apparent that a centre for young writers was essential to support and extend the resources of teachers, parents and schools to engage the most marginalised children and young people in the inner-west in literacy learning.
In October 2012, co-founders Jenna Williams, Lachlann Carter and Jessica Tran, a Pigeons volunteer since 2009, launched 100 Story Building, which is home to all projects delivered up until now under the Pigeons name. In September 2013, 100 Story Building threw open the doors of a brand new centre for young writers in the heart of Footscray.
More than 35,000 children and young people have participated in our creative literacy programs since 2009.
Together with 60 other international members,100 Story Building is a part of the International Alliance of Youth Writing Centres who are joined in a common belief that young people need places where they can write and be heard, where they can have their voices respected, published, celebrated and amplified.
