The Storytellers Project is a multifaceted organization with that envisions a community in which youth and adults have healthy tools to navigate and recover from life's challenges.
The Storytellers Project's mission is to support youth, their families, and their schools in developing culturally congruent social- emotional skills, through the arts, storytelling, and connections with nature, to heal generational cycles of trauma, violence, incarceration, and substance abuse.
The Storytellers Project was founded in 2017 by it's current Executive Director Aubrey Valencia.
The Storytellers project received it's own 501(c)(3) status earlier this year. Prior to this year it operated under the HadaNou Collective as it's fiscal sponsor.
Our Story:
The Storytellers Project is my sacred purpose, it is the culmination of everything I have ever wanted to be or do, the reason for my experiences with trauma and mental illness, and the transformation that occurred in order for me to live my best life. It is the synthesis of all of my education, work experience, life experience and activism, that helps others to heal and transform their own lives. The idea for The Storytellers Project came when I was teaching after school programs in Denver schools. There was a young man who was getting in to trouble nearly every day. One day I pulled him aside and started to ask him about his family and home life. It was clear to me that his behaviors had more to do with trauma than any other factor, I recognized this because of my own experiences of growing up with domestic violence and abuse. The little boy told me he didn’t have a father because his father was murdered in front of him. All of a sudden all his behaviors made sense. I went back to the other adults and asked them if they knew about this. “He just uses that as a crutch”, said one teacher. I was stunned. “I went through things and you went through things we turned out okay.” As I thought of my own struggles with PTSD, depression and anxiety I thought, I definitely did not turn out okay. I asked her if we were teaching him how to cope with what he experienced, “I know I am not teaching him how to cope with it.” I knew I had to do something about this. I begin to create and test some of my first lesson plans for The Storytellers Project. As a child art and books provided the escape and stress relief from the poverty, emotional, physical and sexual abuse I experienced. As an adult telling my story was healing and reduced stigma and shame normally associated with these experiences. I knew I had something more to offer the children I worked with. The Storytellers Project is my way of sharing that resilience with the youth, breaking and healing the cycle of violence, and increasing the love and compassion in the world. - Aubrey Valencia
Organization name
The Storytellers Project
other names
Breaking Chains Building Bonds
2017
Tax id (EIN)
36-5055436
Category
Education, Human Services, Youth Development
Organization Size
Medium Organization
Address
The Storytellers Project C/O Parkview Congregational Church 12444 E. Parkview Dr.Aurora, CO, US
Denver, CO, US