Sydney Story Factory

The Martina Embassy is the official embassy of Mars, occupied by the Martian Ambassador and his loyal volunteer martians and humans.
The Martian Embassy is also the home-​base of the Sydney Story Factory, a not-​for profit creative writing initiative that focuses on promoting creativity, literacy, & confidence in disadvantaged kids. The centre just opened in Redfern in winter this year (although SFF have been working with schools and families for a while now).
The Martian Embassy hosts many different programs in creative writing, script writing, animation, science and cooking writing, songwriting, drama, etc. These are school programs, after-​school programs, and one-​off workshops. The children always get to take home something tangible and professionally presented — they get to see their work in print, and they get to feel really proud of their achievements.
While the SFF focuses on disadvantaged kids, any students can participate (K-​12). The children are usually paired with a volunteer tutor and so they get one-​on-​one tutoring for their writing. The focus is on storytelling and creativity, although literacy is also important.
There is also a Martian Embassy shop where you can purchase souvenirs from Mars, such as brains and t-​shirts and goo. The interior architecture of the Martian Embassy is also marvellous, and really gets the imagination going.
SSF was inspired by 826 Valencia, a creative writing centre for kids established in San Francisco by Dave Eggers and Ninive Caligari (now a national project in the US).