The Stories Project
Dr. Carrie Symons; Executive Director of Teaching & Learning at Summers-Knoll School, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Which of the Radical Reciprocity themes does this project align with?
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Co-construction
Projects, programs and relationships are intentionally co-generated from inception.
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Reciprocity
Relationships co-create and sustain clear benefits for all involved.
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Radical
University-Community relationships include a process that intentionally seeks to uproot, trace, understand, engage and address root causes and legacies of exclusionary practices, inequity, oppression and other systemic causes of harm to communities and to the democratic purpose of public universities.
“In a documentary short film, The Stories Project, we tell the story of how 11 young adults, from both refugee- and nonrefugee-backgrounds, drew upon their lived experiences in the transnational context of the Refugee Development Center’s GLOBE (Gaining Learning Opportunities Through Better English) summer camp to explore the question: How can we change the negative perception of (im)migrants and (im)migration in the United States? As the film explains, “In 2019, during a five-week summer camp called GLOBE, over 60 refugee-background youth explored their community and the gifts they bring to it. While serving as mentors to the youth, a transnational group of young adults discovered how storytelling can be a bridge between themselves and others.” Through participants’ sharing pieces of their personal histories, the film portrays the humanity of the youth and the mentors who participate in GLOBE.
The Stories Project film is based upon an arts-based, narrative inquiry, education research project that was conducted in partnership with the Refugee Development Center (RDC), a grassroots, nonprofit, community-based organization in Lansing, Michigan that provides free, year-round educational programming for (im)migrant- and refugee-background youth and adults in the Greater Lansing area. The Stories Project film is both a scholarly product and a work of art intended for use by educators to inspire and generate important, social justice-oriented conversations that dismantle biases, negative perceptions, and assumptions about who (im)migrants and refugees are and why they move to and (re)settle in the United States.
The website provides access to free lesson plans that educators can download and use to guide students' learning in tandem with screening the film. While the intended audience of the film is middle and high school youth, it can also be a resource for teaching in postsecondary contexts and out-of-school learning spaces.”
-Dr. Carrie Symonds
Community Partners
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The Refugee Development Center aims to “cultivate a welcoming, thriving community that collaborates with refugees and newcomers through education, engagement, and support.”