With support from the California Arts Council, Tuleburg Press will hire an additional staff member and strategically increase the hours of existing staff to create sustainable leadership and a succession plan. Since 2012, Tuleburg Press founder Paula Sheil, writer and English professor, has volunteered her time to the nonprofit that offers writing and book arts workshops to diverse participants. Under her leadership, the organization’s budget has grown from $1,250 to more than $200,000 with an endowment of $50,000. Sheil is nearing 70, and the nonprofit must supplement her organizational, planning, and fundraising expertise and pass on her knowledge of Stockton. We need to hire someone to shadow her, someone who can maintain the vision of this legacy project in a community that trails state and national averages in literacy.
Tuleburg Press publishes local authors and mentors emerging writers at The Write Place, the organization’s creative writing and book arts center. We publish 1-3 books a year. Classes and field trips for people of all ages, with specific attention to low-income and marginalized groups, are held in paper making, book binding, letter press printing and writing in fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry. We currently service between 30-40 participants a month. Tuleburg Press collaborates with other organizations to provide these same services to specific groups: one.Charter Elementary School for homeless children, Community Medical Centers and the San Joaquin Pride Center are priority partners. Finally, we work with local school districts to enhance elementary school libraries, focusing on reopening shuttered sites, funding acquisitions, and lobbying for trained library technicians. Tuleburg Press is a stakeholder in the revitalization of the downtown Stockton core and a lead organization on arts advocacy and access in Stockton.

