In the Spring and Summer of 2020, in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of professors and graduate students from various Southern California universities sensed that their world was about to be upended. They saw the existing economic and health disparities among their fellow residents in Riverside and San Bernardino County begin to fracture in ways that couldn’t be ignored.

In the Fall of 2021, StoryCenter partnered with ETSU’s Department of Communication & Performance to lead a cohort of 10 graduate students and faculty through the process of developing a brand new podcast showcasing their storytelling work both locally and nationally. We began the workshop by collaboratively developing the podcast’s title, communicative purpose, and content themes. Each participant chose a specific topic and produced their own segment as part of a cohesive podcast. Their episodes vary from guest interviews to traditional spoken-word monologues to research-driven local snapshots.

After September 11, 2001, it became clear that relationships between the U.S. and international Muslim communities needed to improve. In October 2002, Congress took a step toward fostering human understanding and open, sustainable relationships across those cultures by establishing the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) program through the U.S. Department of State. Each year, the YES Program invites high school students from countries with significant Muslim populations to live in the United States with a host family for an academic year. Not only do participants gain firsthand experience of American culture, they also have the opportunity to help their host communities learn about their home countries.

Young people in foster care and/or involved in mental health and juvenile justice systems are at disproportionate risk of poverty, suicidal ideation, and, upon exiting these systems, homelessness. As they age out of or are released from government service programs, these youth face challenges in accessing appropriate health and mental health support. Fortunately, those residing in Humboldt County, California, can become part of the Humboldt County Transition Age Youth Collaboration (HCTAYC), which aims to empower young people with lived experience to transform the foster care, juvenile justice, mental health, and homelessness service systems in Humboldt County, and in greater Northern California.

Over the past two years, StoryCenter has been honored to play a role in an innovative program in the Rio Grande Valley of Southern Texas. The project called Historias Americanas, was a three-year intensive for K-12 educators, designed by project partners, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and the Museum of South Texas History. The intent was to improve the quality of American history education in the Brownsville and Edinburg school districts by building on student and community knowledge and shining a light on the cultural wealth of the area. Local history was melded with the broader history of the United States to fill in faces that were blatantly missing from textbooks.

Despite women’s increased participation over the past several decades in public leadership roles, they still hold a mere 21 percent of ministerial positions globally. Only three countries have 50 percent or more women in parliament, and only 22 countries are headed by women. Women in leadership positions face discriminatory norms, exclusionary policies, and a lack of access to finance that make it more challenging for them to achieve positions with higher levels of responsibility. Yet when women have seats at decision-making tables, they bring transformative changes to entire communities and the world at large.

In the spring of 2021, StoryCenter worked with six members of the Cowlitz County Historic Preservation Commission to help them tell stories that reflect the ways the waterways, ports, and history connect the people of the area. In an online digital storytelling workshop, the storytellers reached into their memories to cover a range of themes–from efforts to restore the local salmon population, to childhood memories of dipping smelt, or watching a father get ready each morning before heading off to work at the Tollycraft boat plant.

The Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) empowers first-time parents to transform their lives and create better futures for themselves and their babies. NFP works by having specially educated nurses regularly visit young, first-time moms-to-be, starting early in the pregnancy and continuing through the child’s second birthday. Like others working in healthcare and the helping professions more broadly, these dedicated providers have since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic been forced to shift from in-person visits to mobile and Zoom meetings. They were used to sitting on couches and holding babies face to face; now, with remote work and continuous waves of the pandemic, they’re facing burnout and compassion fatigue.

The National Museum of Bermuda is a premiere organization in the Caribbean that showcases exhibits and extensive programming on science, art, and culture. Throughout 2021, the museum will engage the public through presentations, workshops, and an on-site contemporary art exhibit, as it prepares to launch an online exhibit called Tracing Our Roots/Routes. The staff, as well as local and international expert panelists, are assisting the public in researching and documenting their personal stories and photographs to add to the story of people who call Bermuda home.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the United States. Although most breast cancers are diagnosed in older women, about nine percent of all breast cancer cases in the U.S. are found in women younger than 45. Risk for breast cancer among young women varies, based on factors such as family and personal history of cancer. Many young women do not know their breast cancer risk or are not aware of ways to lower their risk.

The California State Library empowers the people of the nation's most diverse and populous state by supporting local library branches with funding and support designed to enrich the lives of current and future generations. The Library’s work is motivated by fairness, honesty, respect, and the value of each person and their contributions– it helps to ensure that libraries across the state can connect patrons to the information and resources they need.

In addition to the direct and devastating health and economic implications of COVID-19, the pandemic is exacting a heavy emotional toll on countries around the world. Like the United States, India has weathered high rates of infection; as of February, 2021, nearly 158,000 deaths have been registered there. Grief, uncertainty, isolation, and displacement have impacted people across the country, who are struggling to maintain their courage as they address the needs of those who are most vulnerable. While the relief of a vaccine is on the horizon, community building and mental health support continue to be urgently needed.

What you see as you drive through Chaffee County, Colorado, is beauty—nearby snowcapped mountain peaks, clear blue skies more days than not, and aspen forests. What you don’t usually see is the struggle many people face to find housing, feed their children, and tackle all of the challenges raised during the long months of COVID-19.

Although HIV/AIDS has remained a significant public health challenge since it first emerged back in the early 1980s, the spotlight on the virus has waned as treatments have rendered it a largely treatable chronic condition. However, HIV/AIDS continues to affect thousands of people in the U.S., and vulnerable communities– particularly women and people of color– still face unique challenges in accessing prevention, care, and treatment resources.

Around the country, parents and care givers continues to struggle to find quality, affordable child care. Infant care can be especially challenging to secure. For parents who are working low-wage jobs, salaries are often eclipsed by daycare costs, making investment in a career seem counter-productive. The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) is committed to engaging Oregon residents in advocating for program and policy solutions to the health challenges that impact them the most. Finding quality, affordable infant child care is one such challenge, in the state.

History Colorado’s exhibits are rich in the stories of native peoples, early miners, fur traders, Western pioneers, and cattle barons. In 2007 and again in 2008, StoryCenter was invited to help integrate the voices of Colorado citizens themselves into the stories being told. The two workshops helped turn the tables on history museum interpretation, inviting members of the community to tell their own stories in their own words, and with their own photographs.

Colleges and Universities across the United States and around the world are increasingly embracing models for service learning, as a way of connecting students with local communities and needs. As a way of kicking off a service-learning program led by the UMBC New Media Studio (NMS), StoryCenter led a series of digital storytelling trainings for staff and faculty. What then emerged was a collaboration involving the NMS and Retirement Living Television (RLTV), a closed circuit television programming effort of the Erickson Retirement Communities (now Erickson Living). 

In 2005, two members of the Ohio State University (OSU) library system, Karen Diaz and Anne Fields, attended our StoryCenter digital storytelling workshop in Asheville, NC and together created a story about renovations to the OSU library. Upon their return to Ohio, they engaged the newly formed Digital Union in a project to integrate digital storytelling into the library system’s information technology and curriculum support services. A year later, OSU invited us to lead an on-campus workshop, for a group of faculty and staff. This session resulted in the formation of an OSU Digital Storytelling Leadership Team, comprised of members drawn from several parts of the university.

At StoryCenter, we've heard time and time again from public health professionals of the need to put the "public" back into public health, and while many talk about community engagement, they're still seeking successful and viable ways to put it into practice. This is what the Rocky Mountain Public Health Training Center (RMPH-TC) said to us when they initiated a partnership to bring StoryCenter's storytelling webinars and workshops to public health professionals across the Rocky Mountain region. 

Since its founding in 1951, the vision of the Nature Conservancy has been a world where the diversity of life thrives, and people act to conserve nature for its own sake as well as its ability to fulfill their needs and enrich their lives. Through the dedicated efforts of its diverse staff, the Nature Conservancy uses a non-confrontational, collaborative approach to advance conservation efforts around the world.