Writing Workshops for Organizations, Workplaces, and Community Groups

Customizable workshops designed to bring clarity, chemistry, and creativity to all kinds of groups

We are a crew of word-loving creatives in Southern Ontario, passionate about using writing to create and build human bonds.

We created these workshops to reach beyond our community and bring the alchemy of writing to organizations. We’ve worked with universities, hospitals, non-profits, and corporations to build trust among co-workers, clarify organizational visions, hone blogging skills, or just have fun.

Some highlights have been:

Setting up tables at Sherway Gardens, a large mall in Toronto to write poems with people passing by.
Hosting a daylong off-site workshop in a converted barn to help a group of academics articulate their shared values.
Helping a tight-knit team at a small bakery express to how they want to grow together over the coming year.
Working with a national faith organization to bring care and clarity to their email communications.

Below are some ready-to-go workshops, but most of what we do for organizations is customized. If you see a role for writing in your community group, drop us a line, we’d love to talk.

Building Cultures of Belonging at work

Belonging is a fundamental human need. Research shows a clear link between employee retention and feeling connected to workplace community. But how do we create the conditions for belonging while maintaining important professional boundaries? And what are our tools in an increasingly online world?

In this workshop, we’ll look at the building blocks of cultures of belonging and explore which ones are right for your workplace community. We’ll also use writing to connect to one another and explore what we want from connection in the workplace, as well as what’s already here.

Photo care of Etienne Girardet with thanks.

The words "Come Together" painted onto the side of a parking lot wall.

Reconnecting to Our Why

For many of us, our work is deeply connected to our values. We pour ourselves into the work we believe in, be it volunteer or paid.

This is a wonderful recipe for fulfillment… and for burnout. We step into our positions with boundless energy, which can quickly fade in the daily grind of emails and meetings. How do we reconnect to our original spark when we’re weighed down by the day-to-day realities of a busy organization?

In this workshop, we’ll be writing to reconnect to our collective goals, and to remember what they mean to us. We’ll trace the journeys that led us to this work, and explore new ways to bring joy and flow to our work days. We’ll leave with our flames rekindled and ready to keep us going long into the future.

An old-fashioned compass on a chain, sitting on a patterned cloth.

Photo care of Barby Dalbosco with thanks.

Pause, breathe, write

These days it seems that everyone is exhausted.

As leaders, we want the best for our teams — we want them to experience creativity, community, reciprocity, and shared humanity. We want them to feel appreciated and connected to each other.

This workshop is designed to help groups pause, breathe, and connect to their own stories, as a tool for greater vision and cohesion. We'll work through short, easy guided writing exercises to move our stories onto the page, and then share them if we feel ready. The facilitators will create a warm and encouraging space for participants to open up, listen to each other, and be heard in new ways.

A flock of birds against a blue sky, bright sun behind

Photo care of Rowan Heuvel with thanks.

This is my voice: A workshop for teens

The teen years are some of life’s most confusing, exhilarating, and important. Having a relationship to writing can help young adults trust their voices, connect to others, and express their needs with clarity and self-awareness.

This workshop (or workshop series) is designed to lead teens through a waterfall of short writing experiments — lists, rants, letters, poems, fan fiction, memoir, and more. We’ll get our thoughts on paper in ways that are exhilarating, honest, encouraging, and super fun.

The workshop will follow closely to the Firefly principle that “there is no way to do this wrong.” Participants will build trust in their voices and share their stories in new, brave ways. We’ll laugh a lot and make room for #allthefeels.

Details and next steps

These workshops can be delivered online or in person. Prices vary based on the size of group, organization, and delivery method. Get in touch to figure out how to bring the power of writing to your community.

Get in touch

What clients are saying

I managed an incredibly hardworking team at the Indigenous Justice Division, overseen by the Government of Ontario. We supported Indigenous families with experiences of loss, racial and social injustices. Day in and day out, my team offered selfless and nurturing care. I wanted to give them the chance to reflect on their courage and resiliency. Firefly Creative Writing gave that back to us ten-fold. In a single afternoon, through the power of words and stories, we were transported out of our heads, back to our hearts and towards our shared connections. When we left, we had been lifted up, to be able to carry on the work. I highly recommend booking a workshop with Firefly. The value of building trust in this way with your team cannot be under-estimated.

Terry Swan
Former Manager, Programs Indigenous Justice Division, Government of Ontario
Firefly Creative Writing was incredible to work with during our process. They were enthusiastic and motivated to build something with our group that would best suit our unique needs. Our group loved the facilitator, and felt she created a safe space for them to share and create within the session. Highly recommend their services!

Flannery Sadler
Health Equity, Patient & Community Engagement, Scarborough Health Network
I can honestly say that Firefly’s writing workshops brought our group so much closer together than I could have imagined. The sessions were thoughtfully and professionally prepared and the instructor brought joy, enthusiasm and inspiration to the creative process. The Firefly team was agile, willing to adapt to the group’s needs and interests on a dime. I am so glad we decided to incorporate Firefly into our community. Their work is second to none and the outcomes in terms of building teamwork and mutual respect among my group were astounding. It was exactly what we needed.

Jodi Lastman
Manager, Communications & Partnerships, Hospitality Workers Training Centre
The simple-yet-revealing exercises were compelling and extracted the most amazing prose from each individual. It was a surprise to discover how “easy” it was to excavate our inner authors and it was an added bonus to discover even more hidden gems about our own personal stories. Beautiful accounts appeared that brought forward memories and poignancy that we weren’t conscious of prior to our session. Professionally facilitated, this is an excellent workshop for any corporation wanting to offer employees an opportunity to discover and express their own inner writers and themselves.

Deb Niven
Former Co-President, The Wynford Group
Throughout the past few months, Firefly has sent us some amazing facilitators as who worked with our group of youth to deliver powerful writing sessions. Many of our youth enjoyed the process of taking time out on a weekly basis to put their thoughts on paper, reflect on their current situation and share their pieces with their peers. The facilitators did a great job in creating a welcoming environment while addressing heavy themes such as family, relationships, emotions, and self-talk. I can't describe the number of times I was blown away by the writing pieces shared by the group and how true to their lived experiences.

Labib Chowdhury
Youth Services Coordinator, Scadding Court Community Centre
I knew I could trust the Firefly team to run a writing workshop for the business mastermind I'm running—that it would be intensely thought-provoking and done with an anti-oppressive lens that is so important to my clients. The facilitator brought such depth of experience to the group, and customized the workshop to exactly what would be useful to them. She was able to hold tough conversations, and get participants thinking deeply about their work and their impact in the world. I would definitely have Firefly back again.

Tarzan Kay
Founder, Storyteller-in-Chief and Writer of Highly Addictive Emails, Tarzan Kay Global
The Cultural Relations and Solidarity team at Indigenous Youth Roots loves to work with Firefly Creative, so much so, we decided to invite them to our IYR staff meeting to facilitate a writing session for the whole organization. We can't wait to collaborate with them again!

Stephanie Jeremie
Director, Community Relations & Solidarity, Indigenous Youth Roots
We hosted a workshop with Firefly Creative Writing for people living with endometriosis. Working with the Firefly team was a seamless and easy process. Their professionalism and communication were great before, during and after our writing workshop. They helped our charity curate a workshop suited to our needs and desired outcomes. Our workshop facilitator offered many entry points and met the individual needs of all event attendees with patience. The writing prompts were all appreciated by the group and helped many of us get in touch with the feelings we have about living with endometriosis. It was cathartic and healing to think about our bodies in the ways we did and many of us found writing to be a great form of expression and tool for reflection. We would work with Firefly again! Thank you!

Tami & Leah
Co-founders of Endometriosis Events