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Eight local children will get to see their writing in print this fall after a successful summer of storytelling.

Through Big Brothers Big Sisters of Asbury Park, city kids met with mentors every other week this summer to refine their writing skills as a group. This was Storytellers Asbury Park’s pilot year, and organizers say it will likely continue next summer.

“I know there are limitations because it’s a summer program — kids have better things to do, no one really wants to sit around and write,” said creator Michael Downing [above]. “But we’ve started with a core group of eight and we haven’t lost any of them.”

At Big Brothers Big Sisters, “littles” ages 12 and under are matched with “big” mentors. Starting in mid-June, the big-little pairs were given the opportunity to participate in Storytellers Asbury Park. They’ll continue to meet every other week for 90 minutes at Big Brothers Big Sisters’ new location on Bond Street until September.

The eight littles keep journals and can write in whichever form they choose: poetry, short stories or memoir-style anecdotes from their lives. At first, sessions had more of a lecture format and a focus on group activities, but the focus has since shifted to individual writing skills and the stories of each child.

“Some kids when they started were shy, withdrawn. Over the course of the sessions they’ve opened up about their writing, laying little bits and pieces of themselves out on paper and they’re happy to talk about it,” Downing said.

Downing, who has published fiction under the pen name Kevin Michaels, was inspired to start the program a year ago at an Asbury Park city council meeting.

“Mayor Johnson made a point at that time that if each person could do just one thing we could make a difference,” he said. “At the time I thought about different things I could bring my talents to, and one of the things I feel strongly about is literacy and writing.”

Downing drew inspiration from Dave Eggers’s 826 Valencia in San Francisco and the Freedom Writers in Los Angeles, both of which provide writing programs for at-risk youth to strengthen their confidence and self-expression.

After the program ends in September, the children’s writing will be published. Young authors, their families, their bigs and guests will celebrate at a book signing in November.

“It’s treating them like actual writers because they are writers,” Downing said. “Everything in this book is coming from them. It’ll give them a chance to build their confidence and a sense of satisfaction, and make them feel like their voices count and they matter.”

The signing will be one of the first events at local independent movie theater The Showroom’s new location on Cookman Avenue, and will be part of Big Brothers Big Sisters’ month-long open house.

This summer’s pilot program has given Downing and executive director William Salcedo a chance to see what might work best for the future of the program. Downing hopes to hopes to expand the program and bring in contemporary writers like Junot Díaz and Sapphire.

“No offense to Stephen Crane, but ‘The Red Badge of Courage’ isn’t doing it for kids today,” Downing said.

Organizers are also interested in using Asbury Park’s pool of talent to expand the program to include other art forms like painting or pottery, Salcedo said.

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