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With good reason, many LGBTQIA+ individuals in India are still reluctant to speak out publicly, for fear that they will be ostracized, harmed, or discriminated against in educational and workplace settings, and within their own families. While social media can provide safe spaces for these communities to gather online, efforts to publicly educate and advocate on queer issues are still in short supply across the country. The Rainbow Stories project brought together ten amazing LGBTQIA+ individuals from states in East and Northeast India, to participate in an intensive performative digital storytelling workshop in Kolkata.
The current era is a confusing one, for trans and nonbinary youth in the U.S. On the one hand, significant gains have been made in creating supportive family and community environments where young people can explore and express their transness. On the other hand, the experiences of trans and nonbinary youth have been weaponized by a hyper-conservative Republican Party intent upon fanning the flames of the culture wars, as laws banning gender-affirming care and appropriate health services for trans and nonbinary youth have been proposed and passed in numerous red states. Within this divisive climate, the Trans Teen and Family Narratives (TTFN) Project has developed a resource for families to use as they explore how best to support their trans and nonbinary young people.
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.
It has become abundantly clear that the people being harmed– communities of color, migrant populations, people living in poverty– are being hit from multiple sides. Communities of color are more likely to live near polluting power plants or industrial centers, meaning we can only truly combat racism if we’re also fighting for cleaner air and water. … It’s also clear that the people causing harm– polluting the air and water, discriminating against communities of color, neglecting schools, restricting access to reproductive healthcare, legislating against transgender rights–are often the same. The movement pushing to restrict abortion access is made up of the same people who don’t want their children to learn about racism or LGBTQ rights in school, join unions at work, or welcome immigrants into their communities.
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.
New Orleans in the popular imagination tends to be represented by images of Mardi Gras or the enduring legacy of Hurricane Katrina. Less attention is devoted to the devastation that’s happening in the city’s backyard. There have been so many cases of cancer, so much inexplicable illness and death, that the 85-mile stretch of the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans has become known as “Cancer Alley.” This corridor is home to more than 200 petrochemical plants and refineries. The roots of many of the African American towns in the area go back hundreds of years. There is a palpable sense of history in the area, yet these communities are under assault by an ever expanding petrochemical industry, as well as a state government that facilitates the construction and pollution of plants and refineries.
To date, more than two billion people worldwide have been infected with hepatitis B. The Hepatitis B Foundation, which works to improve the lives of people living with hepatitis B recognizes that directly engaging community members in speaking out about obstacles to testing, prevention, and care is essential to reducing the stigma associated with the virus, encouraging screening, and improving services.
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.
Human trafficking remains a significant problem globally, and women and girls pay the highest price. India is no exception; according to estimates, human trafficking affects between 20 and 65 million people in the country. Indian women and girls are trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced marriage, and girls are also lured into forced labor as domestic servants. While laws that criminalize these practices exist, enforcement and prosecution are inadequate.