Storytelling

Seattle University has partnered with major storytelling nonprofits to gather local stories about family homelessness.

• StoryCorps: "Finding Our Way: Puget Sound Stories of Family Homelessness" invited families with lived experience of homelessness -- in their recent or distant past -- to share their stories with this organization dedicated to collecting, sharing and preserving stories.
• The Moth: This organization known for "true stories, told live" came to Seattle to help us train storytellers and share their stories in front of a live audience.
• Pongo Poetry at Schoolhouse Washington: Children around Washington state learned to write poetry to express their life challenges. 
• Ignite Project Homeless and Stories About Home: We partnered with The Seattle Times Project Homeless team in 2018 and 2019 for a night of stories told in the Ignite format.

Nine wonderful storytellers took to the stage in June 2018 to dispel myths about homelessness at "Ignite Project Homeless." We partnered with the Project Homeless team at The Seattle Times to recruit and train storytellers and invited the community to come and listen. In a packed Pigott Auditorium, our audience heard stories of courage, compassion and resilience.

Learn more about them and watch the Facebook Live recording.

The Pongo Poetry method teaches people how to use poetry to work through traumatic experiences, and in 2017-18 we've been partnering with Pongo to bring this to schoolchildren in Washington state. Through a partnership with Schoolhouse Washington, four middle schools won grants to host a Pongo-style program at their schools. Find out more on our Portfolio Site.