Challenge Into Change | Central VA — The Women's Initiative

Challenge Into Change is a writing program and community event that supports participants to nurture mental health and promote overall well-being with self-expression through writing.

Submit your story of healing ⟶

Community member reads their writing during annual Challenge into Change event in Charlottesville

My Story, My Strength

Challenge Into Change is a writing program that honors women’s stories of overcoming life challenges to find hope and healing. We have collected these true stories since 2008 and shared them through community readings and published books to inspire all people along their healing journeys.

Our 2024 theme is “My Story, My Strength.” Submissions are currently being accepted. ⟶

Women and members of the gender-expansive community are invited to submit short selections of prose or poetry on transforming difficult experiences — such as grief, poverty, illness, domestic violence, or racial trauma — as part of the journey toward well-being and wholeness. First-time writers are encouraged to participate.

Community member reads their writing during Challenge into Change community event

Writing for Healing is offered regularly through our Arts & Connection Resilience Programs. Participants explore how the writing process can serve as a healing tool for adversity and painful experiences, and how self-expression and stories can connect us.

Challenge Into Change culminates with a celebration and book launch to honor all participants and the communities that support them in healing.

This year’s community celebration will be held Wednesday, November 13, at 6:30pm at the Piedmont Virginia Community College’s Dickinson Theater.

We are so grateful to all those who make this program a success, including our volunteers, event speakers, sponsors, donors, and especially our authors who contribute their personal narratives with bravery and grace.

TWI Staff member introduces the next speaker at the annual Challenge into Change community event

Submit your story.

Please review our submission guidelines before completing the form. Note there is a maximum of two entries per person. Submissions close August 23 at 12pm.

Contact our office at 434.872.0047 or email info@thewomensinitiative.org with questions.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

500 words or less, in either prose or poetry. Maximum 2 entries per individual.
A true story based upon yourself or a woman you know
Your own original work, written in English or Spanish
Free from obscene, racist, sexist, inciting, or salacious language

FOR PARTICIPANTS

Women and members of the gender-expansive community who are 18 years of age and older and who live in Central Virginia are invited to participate.
All eligible writing entries will be published (with author permission) in our Challenge Into Change book and authors will be honored at a community celebration this fall in Charlottesville.
We encourage first-time and new writers to participate. Our emphasis is on celebrating healing stories! Correct grammar and spelling are not required.

Submit your story ⟶

Envía su historia ⟶

FAQs

Do I have to have my written story published?
No. While everyone who submits an eligible story has the option to be published, you can note on your submission form if you do not want to be published.

Do I need to publish using my name?
No, you may publish anonymously, using only your initials, using only your first name, or using a pen name.

Participant Stories

“I’ve learned that sometimes you will be alone, you’ll have to learn to sit with yourself. No one can teach you how to be with you, for you, but you. I like to think of my birthday as the day I first went to therapy. Sought help. Tried to save my life. Start my life.”

- Olivia Winston, Her Light
“I learned how to collect honey from the resilient group of women in my lineage. The ones who crossed the borders of North America, swam across rapids rivers, and endured the heat of valleys and deserts … to plant seeds of prosperity and hope in a foreign land. I learned how to channel art because I was full of rage, hurt, and despair. I learned how to channel those feelings because I was ready to be free.”

- Melissa Vargas, My Mother’s Hands
“I’m so young. / How is everything I ever loved / just a relic / a whisper of an old way of life / or only a memory? / But still I move forward. / To whatever I will become. / In a world I barely recognize.”

- Elizabeth Vaughn-Mead, Dad
“This unimaginable loss was devastating, but my child and residents of this Midwestern Ohio cul-de-sac prepared me well. They saved my life as my daughter lost hers, proving that through living larger and growing larger, that the last earthly year for a vivacious 27-year-old cancer warrior, daughter, mother, sister, wife, and friends, could be, in fact, remarkable.”

- Janet Call, More Than a Neighborhood