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The idea of going to an after-school tutoring center is undoubtedly groan-inducing for most students. But what if they could enter the workspace through a secret door? And what if that secret door were located in the back of a store that sold supplies for superheroes鈥攃apes, truth serum, photon shooters, and invisibility-detection goggles?

A nonprofit organization called 826 National, co-founded by author Dave Eggers and educator N铆nive Calegari, now has eight such tutoring centers in urban areas around the country, each with a unique retail storefront that supports the free programming and is designed to fire up students鈥� imaginations. The centers鈥攁ll focused on creative writing鈥攐ffer workshops, one-on-one homework help, field trips, in-school support for teachers, and summer sessions. They鈥檙e staffed mainly by community volunteers.

The national network, which started with a single center at 826 Valencia Street in San Francisco 12 years ago, now reaches 30,000 students鈥攁 majority of whom are from underresourced communities. Partly because of the star power of Mr. Eggers, the author of the best-selling memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, the network has attracted a steady stream of volunteers and some celebrity attention. It鈥檚 also continuing to expand across the country, and possibly internationally.

The newest chapter, opened in 2010 in Washington, has quickly ramped up and now serves some 3,300 youths. Organizers of tutoring centers in New Orleans and St. Paul, Minn., are hoping to soon join the network.

Meanwhile, the network is rolling out a new program that combines STEM education with creative writing.

The 826 centers, funded by a mix of public and private grants, donations, events, and retail sales, serve students ages 6 to 18 from nearby public schools on a first-come, first-served basis. In San Francisco, 826 students enter through the Pirate Supply Store. In Boston, it鈥檚 the Bigfoot Research Institute, and in Washington, they go in through the Museum of Unnatural History. The Brooklyn store sells the superhero equipment.

鈥淭he notion you鈥檝e crossed a boundary and entered into another world is a special alchemy they鈥檝e got,鈥� said Elyse Eidman-Aadahl, the executive director of the National Writing Project, a network that provides writing professional development for teachers but is not formally associated with 826.

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Gerald Richards, the CEO of 826 National, said the storefronts contribute to the ability to provide 鈥渟tealth education.鈥�

鈥淪tudents are coming right from school, and they walk into this space. They touch some eyeballs, they might try on the cape tester, then they walk in the back, and their whole perception shifts,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like I鈥檓 not going into a tutoring space, I鈥檓 going into a different space where volunteers are waiting to work with me.鈥�

Several flagship programs run at all 826 sites. One-on-one homework help is held after 3 p.m. almost every school day, the last hour of which is dedicated to writing assistance. During Storytelling and Bookmaking field trips, classes from local schools drop by for two-hour sessions in which they write a story as a group, bind it into a book on-site, and fill out the ending on their own. Individual after-school and summer workshops have playful writing-related themes鈥攆or example, cartooning, playwriting, or comedy writing.

And the Young Authors鈥� Book Project connects classrooms with writers and volunteers, who spend a semester helping students craft poems or stories that are then bound into a professionally published book.

Comedian Robin Williams, author Isabel Allende, and filmmaker Spike Jonze, among others, have written the forwards for the student anthologies.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e making space for young people to do real writing and carry their writing all the way through the process to publication,鈥� said Ms. Eidman-Aadahl. 鈥淭hey endow writing again with the kind of magic that the written word should have.鈥�

STEM Initiative

As part of the new 826 program that blends STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) with creative writing, students will do a hands-on science experiment and use it as the inspiration for fiction writing.

In a 2012 pilot, students learned about viral mapping and rates of decay, then wrote stories about a zombie apocalypse. The lesson plans are aligned to both the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards, according to 826.

Unlike with some other national education networks, the 826 model is overall quite nimble, said Mr. Richards. As it is, the centers are founded at the local level and then apply for chapter status.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not going to parachute in and say you need 826,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t has to be locally driven.鈥�

That means each chapter puts its own spin on how programs are run.

鈥淎s a network of organizations, we鈥檙e very reflective of the needs and resources in our communities,鈥� said Amanda Uhle, the executive director of 826 Michigan, which is based in Ann Arbor. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 see it being successful if the program were more rigid and allowed for less flexibility.鈥�

In Michigan, for example, public transportation is not as abundant as in some of the other places 826 works.

鈥淚t鈥檚 been really obvious since the beginning that many of the students we aim to serve are not able to get to our center,鈥� said Ms. Uhle. 鈥淪o we go to them.鈥�

The center bought a car, which it packs full of tutors each day and drives to nearby Ypsilanti. A local cafe owner donates space for the afternoon tutoring sessions.

鈥淚n a weird way, that it鈥檚 a restaurant fits into the model of having an unrelated storefront,鈥� said Ms. Uhle.

The group still hosts tutoring in Ann Arbor, behind a robot supply store, but the second tutoring space allows them to reach more students from a less-affluent area.

The 826 workshops and in-school programs differ from place to place as well, generally based on volunteers鈥� experiences and interests. The New York City chapter began a filmwriting workshop because it had volunteers in the industry, said Mr. Richards.

Two years ago, the Washington chapter started a Saturday reading program at a nearby school. Students drop by from 10 a.m. to noon for individualized reading time with an adult.

鈥淲e had a huge cohort of volunteers looking for something to do on the weekends,鈥� said Joe Callahan, the executive director of 826 DC.

The chapter also tends 鈥渢o do a lot more poetry than other chapters,鈥� said Mr. Callahan. 鈥淭here happens to be a vibrant poetry scene here in the District.鈥�

This past year in the District of Columbia, creative-writing students from the SEED School, a residential charter school located in a predominantly African-American and low-income area, spent 16 weeks working with award-winning local poet Kyle G. Dargan to write and edit their own poems. Mr. Dargan, the director of creative writing at American University, came to their classroom once a week to help guide them.

Though reticent at first, the students developed a comfortable working relationship with the poet, who lives in the same part of Washington, and began discussing with him the tensions of living in a poor but quickly changing neighborhood.

鈥淲rite toward that anxiety,鈥� he told them.

Many students wrote personal reflections on the effects of gentrification and what it feels like to live in a city divided by income brackets and race.

鈥淵ou have to convince them there are people who want to listen to their perspective,鈥� Mr. Dargan said. 鈥淥nce you break down that barrier, the important stuff will flow out.鈥�

The students did a public reading of their poetry, bound into a book titled Everyone Is Moving, No One in Place, at 826 DC in May.

Topher Kandik, who teaches the 9th and 10th grade creative-writing class at the SEED School, said having the book published was a powerful part of the process. 鈥淭he goal is to make them feel like they belong鈥攖hat it鈥檚 not outside the [realm of] possibility that they could be a writer.鈥�

Reflecting on her poem in an interview before the public reading, 10th grader Bijion Cooke said, 鈥淭his doesn鈥檛 seem like a 10th grade piece. It鈥檚 better than the work I鈥檇 do by myself.鈥�

A 鈥楾hird Space鈥�

Recent evaluations suggest the 826 chapters are helping students with both confidence and academics. An 826 analysis of test scores and surveys, conducted during the 2011-12 academic year, found that students increased an average of 13 percent in 鈥渟tory composition鈥� skills and 8 percent in 鈥渃ontextual convention鈥� (such as noun-verb agreement and punctuation) on a standardized writing test after participating in 826 programs.

Participants were also more likely to report enjoying writing and feeling proud of their work, the study found. An external evaluation of the Young Authors鈥� Book Project in Boston, conducted in 2013, found similar results.

But as some see it, what the 826 chapters do best is give students one-on-one attention, which happens rarely in schools, and set up a 鈥渢hird space"鈥攕omewhere that鈥檚 neither home nor school that provides creative opportunities and inspiration.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a strong Socratic method,鈥� said Mr. Richards, 826鈥檚 CEO. As a volunteer, 鈥測ou鈥檙e there to support and to nourish, you鈥檙e not there so much to teach."At 826, 鈥測oung people with an interest in writing can go to follow their interest and be with other young people and mentors who also love writing,鈥� said Ms. Eidman-Aadahl of the National Writing Project.

However, 826 chapters are 鈥渘ot the mass solution,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e not everywhere.鈥�

In fact, there are many other local initiatives鈥攕ummer writing camps, after-school writing clubs, library writing centers鈥攚ithout the name recognition that are doing similar work. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e not so much organized, but in their local communities, people know about them,鈥� she said.

Making out-of-school writing opportunities available widely is critical, she added.

鈥淲e know in schools the minutes for writing have just diminished in so many places with the emphasis on testing and reading and math,鈥� said Ms. Eidman-Aadahl. 鈥淲hen writing shows up, it鈥檚 much more likely to show up as a form of testing.鈥�

Going Global?

While 826 is only located in a few urban areas for now, leaders of the national organization have plans to branch out. Beyond the tutoring spaces in New Orleans and St. Paul, Minn., whose leaders are hoping to get the official 826 imprimatur, centers in Amsterdam, London, and Sydney, Australia, may soon try to make the brand international.

Mr. Richards noted that the organization is also applying for a federal Investing in Innovation grant.

Individual centers are expanding as well. Michigan is considering opening a second storefront in Detroit next year, though Ms. Uhle called that plan 鈥渇unding dependent.鈥� And the Washington chapter is on track to meet a goal of serving 5,000 students鈥攁bout 10 percent of the public school population鈥攂y June 2016. (It currently serves 3,250, up from 2,500 in 2013.)For Mr. Callahan of 826 DC, expansion is now more critical than ever. In working with students on their assigned homework, 鈥渨e鈥檝e noticed less creative writing,鈥� he said. 鈥淎m I concerned? Personally, yes. But that is why a place like 826 is important. Because after [students] finish their homework, they have an opportunity to write what they wouldn鈥檛 in the classroom.鈥�