On the busy streets of Los Angeles, a touch of magic awaits inside the Time Travel Mart. Upon entering the small store, visitors are greeted with supplies for travelers bound for the Jurassic period, the Middle Ages, or even an apocalyptic future. From a survival guide titled “Self-Defense for Time Travelers” to Viking odorants, every shelf is filled with unexpected items that spark one’s imagination.
The Time Travel Mart is more than a whimsical retail store. It is also the front of 826LA, a nonprofit writing and tutoring center dedicated to providing free educational resources to Los Angeles communities while inspiring a love of creative writing in students ages 6 to 18.
At 826LA’s Mar Vista location is the Time Travel Mart. (Photo courtesy of 826LA)
Behind the doors labeled, “Do Not Enter. You Will Disrupt the Temporal Continuum,” the Barnacle & Barnacle Publishers tutoring center is buzzing with chatter. Shelves are lined with books of varying genres and reading levels. Students are scattered throughout the room — gathered around tables, curled up on a comfortable couch, or sitting cross-legged on the floor — immersed in their work.
The Time Travel Mart sells humorous supplies for the past, present and future while serving as a front and fundraiser for 826LA. (Photo courtesy of 826LA)
Trevor Crown, senior manager of Volunteer Innovation and Assessment, said that the most rewarding aspect of working with 826LA is seeing students create something they’re proud of.
“I never get tired of seeing a student shocked at receiving permission to be themselves,” Crown said.“I’m just so grateful to get to watch these students grow as artists.”
826LA offers programs ranging from free homework help in after-school tutoring, creative writing sessions and Writers’ Rooms placed directly in local high schools across L.A., including Boyle Heights, South L.A. and Venice.
“We help students finish their homework, we help them in various different academic areas,” Crown said. “But at heart, we will always be a creative writing-focused organization. I think that so much of our success flows from that.”
826LA hosts initiatives like the Young Authors Book Project, a writing program that guides students through brainstorming, outlining, drafting and revising original pieces. At the end of each semester, students’ completed works are published as a professionally-bound book and is distributed online, at their storefront and in local libraries.
Gabriela Romero attended 826LA programs alongside her siblings throughout middle and high school. She returned to the nonprofit in 2025 as the field trips and operations coordinator. Now, Romero strives to create the same educational experience for new generations of students.
“I remember getting on stage and reading something that I wrote,” Romero said. “Those are always memories I think of when I think of 826LA.”
Students read their published work at WO!AS Spring Book Publication Release at the Time Travel Mart at Mar Vista. (Photo courtesy of 826LA)
Unlike traditional school curricula, which primarily focus on argumentative and informational text analysis, 826LA encourages youth to develop their unique voice through writing fiction, even if it means breaking rigid structural rules in writing. Through this, students are able to improve their vocabulary, pacing and vocabulary.
“I liked more fiction writing, which 826LA supported a lot of,” 826LA alumnus Santiago (Tito) Orellana said. “Their approach made writing more fun than traditional schooling.”
While 826LA’s mission of unlocking the power of writing in youth and supporting teachers remains the same since their establishment in 2005, their approach continues to evolve to better serve their community.
“We listen to the kids. We listen to their experiences,” screenwriter and 826LA volunteer Jordan Rawlins said. “We listen to the community and we take input and we make it better for them.”
826LA hosts writing workshops that encourage celebrating unique student voices and foster creativity. (Photo courtesy of 826LA)
Mike Dunbar, the Programs & Operations Manager at 826LA’s Mar Vista location, said that in order for students to become stronger writers, they also need to read books that are out of their comfort zone or skill set.
“When it comes to creative writing, we’re not doing enough of it,” Dunbar said. “I think [reading and writing] have been crowded out of the curriculums that are being used.”
California is facing a severe literacy crisis. More than 58% of California students in 2022 read below grade level in third grade and are unable to catch up.
A 2024 EdSource article connected this to generalized reading materials that are misaligned with student interest, leading them to grow disengaged in the material and stop reading altogether.
“I think there’s an assumption that students don’t like to read and I’ve also seen that not be the case in our programs,” Dunbar said. “If you could find the right book for a student and you find the thing that they’re interested in, students actually love to read.”
With the growing popularity of artificial intelligence, educators’ concern about loss of critical thinking, an increase in academic dishonesty and the flattening of a student’s unique personal voice continues to worsen. While 826LA recognizes the potential benefits of AI as an educational tool, they remain aware of its potential impact on learning.
“If people are looking for things that make learning easier, they’re chasing the wrong pursuit,” Balboa said. “When you struggle with [learning], your brain has to work to wrap itself around the concepts and the application of the concepts, that’s when deep learning happens.”
826LA aims to create a space where students are encouraged to express their creativity, sharpen their craft and share their experiences. 826LA conducts every creative writing activity fully on paper, providing resources such as volunteer help and physical dictionaries for students throughout the process.
“We don’t need a machine to speak for [students], we need them to speak for themselves,” Dunbar said. “We need that raw, unfiltered, maybe grammatically-not-perfect, authentic voice from students.”
826LA conducts every creative writing activity fully on paper, and provides students with resources such as physical dictionaries and volunteer help. (Photo courtesy of 826LA)
Executive director Jaime Balboa works to bring mindfulness and trauma-informed educational practices to the organization. By incorporating breathing exercises in between activities and providing mindfulness journals where students can privately process their thoughts, Balboa hopes to help students connect with themselves and approach their work with greater clarity.
More than 90% of students 826LA serves are people of color coming from low-income schools, Balboa said.
“You can think about the pandemic as trauma that we went through five years ago now but the impact continues to linger [so] we needed to be able to teach writing in a mindful way,” Balboa said.
A recent program at 826LA is the Black Writers Initiative, which was launched in 2022 to provide opportunities for students from diverse backgrounds. The initiative aims to increase the number of Black and African American participants by offering workshops, mentorship and dedicated writing projects.
“A lot of students come from backgrounds where they normally wouldn’t have a lot of help,” South Pasadena Middle School librarian and 826LA volunteer Rozanna Baranets said. “The most rewarding part of [working with 826LA] is being able to have one-on-one heartfelt conversations based on what they’re reading and learning.”
More than 800 Los Angeles residents dedicate their time to 826LA as volunteers. Whether they’re assisting students with writing and homework or designing products for the Time Travel Mart, volunteers are essential to the nonprofit’s work.
“It takes a lot to come in every day [without] getting paid to tutor a bunch of annoying teenagers,” Orellana said with a laugh. “It shows that they actually care. [The volunteers are] not just teachers, they’re also filmmakers, actors, accountants who actually want to help the next generation of people with writing and homework help.”
Those who work at 826LA, whether they are staff members, volunteers or interns, are deeply embedded in Los Angeles neighborhoods.
“We are part of the community,” Balboa said. “You have to start at a place of love and respect for your community and how you can make a positive impact and that’s what [we in] 826LA ask ourselves all the time.”
Volunteers work one-on-one with students. (Photo courtesy of 826LA)
When the Palisades Fire began in the Santa Monica Mountains on Jan. 7, 2025, it did more than destroy the homes of many Los Angeles dwellers; it took away some of their most treasured belongings. Having seen the impacts of the wildfire firsthand, those involved in 826LA looked for a way to help young students who had lost their favorite books.
826LA also partnered with Labo des Histoires — a French national nonprofit organization that provides free writing workshops to those under the age of 25 — and the Jean Cocteau elementary and middle school in France to create an international creative writing exchange between L.A. and Bordeaux.
“When the fires were happening, I reached out to 826LA,” Rawlins said. “Immediately, they started gathering books and getting them to a kid [who] was staying with me [and] had lost his home.”
826LA is a firm believer that in order to develop strong writing skills, students also need to become better readers. In the Barnacle & Barnacle Publishing tutoring center, one is surrounded by shelves of books. Students are welcome to spend their breaks sitting comfortably on a couch reading in the “Calm Corner.” From classic literature to graphic novels, 826LA participants have the opportunity to find the right story for them to get lost in or get inspiration from for their own craft.
“I used to think of reading and writing as a chore,” Orellana said. “The more writing I did at 826LA, the more I wanted to read other books to see other styles [of writing].”
Students discuss books during their snack break at the Barnacle’s Bookworms event. (Selina Alipour Tabrizi / L.A. Times HS Insider)
Barnacle’s Bookworms, a year-round reading comprehension program, provides something that might not be easy to find in regular schools: choice. During each two hour-long event, 826LA provides hundreds of books for students while also providing one-on-one support. While some students work with a volunteer to improve their vocabulary and comprehension, others are simply provided an opportunity to read their preferred book in a calm and comfortable environment, Dunbar said.
“Of all the different types of writing and academic work, creative writing might have the best chance at combating short attention spans,” Crown said. “Creative writing comes with the challenge to write about something that you’re invested in to create something that you can invest yourself in, and if you can do that, suddenly it’s not hard to pay attention to something for longer than five minutes.”
826LA hosts a Summer Writers Workshop where students get the chance to write music. (Photo courtesy of 826LA)
From published books to private journals, most of the 826LA are passionate writers creating a welcoming third space for students to explore their imagination in a supportive writing community.
“We share our own writings with each other in staff meetings,” Balboa said. “We do little writing workshops with each other in staff meetings as a mode of professional development and self expression. If we ask that of our students, we should also ask that of ourselves and our volunteers.”
Creative writing is an essential skill for youth to learn regardless of their future career plans. The art form does more than improve reading comprehension and communication skills; it helps process stress, complex emotions and build empathy.
“I always think that [writing is] the simplest form of creativity that we can think of, which is a pen and paper,” Romero said. “It’s something we all have and sometimes we don’t realize that we have it until someone tells us.”
In 826LA’s book release parties, young writers have the opportunity to read their original published work for friends, family and peers. (Photo courtesy of 826LA)
On the surface, the Time Travel Mart appears to be a satirical store stocked with supplies for fictional adventures, but the most meaningful destination lies behind the storefront. Surrounded by books, notebooks and encouraging mentors, young students are finding the confidence to explore creative writing.
By fostering students’ imagination, 826LA is helping shape the future without using a time machine.
Literacy nonprofit 826LA provides free educational programs to students aged 6 to 18. (Selina Alipour Tabrizi / L.A. Times HS Insider)
