Story Works: True Stories. Youth Voices. Shared Strength.

Scaleable, culturally-responsive, and youth-driven, Story Works' free curriculum helps teachers support 21st century learners in building connection, opportunity, and resilience. 

1. Problem: Disconnection and disengagement of high school-aged youth are correlated with increases in youth risk behaviors that negatively impact learning, teaching, and wellness(1). Meanwhile, data tell us that when youth connect to each others' stories, their physiological responses to stress can improve, they are more likely to be successful in school, and positive change becomes possible(2). 

2. Solution: Story Works offers a free* Common Core-aligned, high school English/Language Arts curriculum that helps teachers invite youth to share aloud true-first person stories. Videos, recorded example stories, tips from past participants, and easily adaptable handouts support safe, productive, and meaningful workshops. As stories are heard, explored, and shared aloud, youth build meaning, find connection, and know they matter. 

At the core of each workshop is a simple, optional invitation to share a true4-5 minute long story aloud, in class, without notes. While working on their stories, participants are allowed to opt out of speaking at any time and can choose write a personal narrative or analytical essay instead. 

Because of our roots in Alaska, Story Works remains particularly aware of the historical connection between public schooling and the forced assimilation of young people. With this in mind, we encourage all students to use the voice and storytelling style that feels best for them as an individual --whether or not that style, strategy, or voice has previously been modeled in English class.

3. Story Works and our participants are already changing the world one classroom and one story at a time! Over 1,800 high school students in Anchorage and Unalakleeet have now shared their own stories with their classes. In addition to "connecting," "learning new things about people I have known since kindergarten," "becoming closer as a class," and "removing the masks we all wear," more than 97% of sampled participants have also self-reported outcomes aligned with CDC-recognized protective factors against youth risk behavior. 

By honoring students' expertise (as consumers of curriculum and as the authors of their own stories), by involving students in the dissemination of curriculum, and by encouraging a kind of listening that too rarely happens in schools, Story Works is quietly and positively disrupting school, changing the learning landscape, and creating connections that support learning. With Solve support, that positive disruption can be powerfully amplified to reach educators and students across the US and abroad. 

(1) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2017 Youth Risk Behavior Survey Data. Available at: www.cdc.gov/yrbs. Accessed on July 9, 2018.

(2) How to Improve Adolescent Stress Response: Insights From Integrating Implicit Theories of Personalities and Biopsychosocial Models, David S. Yeager, Hae Yeon Lee, and Jeremy P. Jamieson, Psychological Science, Vol 27, Issue 8, pp. 1078 - 1091, First Published June 20, 2016

*Note: We promise, we don't give everything away for free but we are deeply committed to Open Educational Resources. And we believe our resources will be strengthened the more they are shared.

Our process for solving the Challenge incorporates both existing technology and pre-industrial modes of connection in a deceptively simple invitation: "talk to each other." 

Supported by the collective input of more than 1,800 past  youth participants and endorsed by research(1), our innovation lies in using technology to allow connection and inspiration and engaging humans in our collective need to engage face-to-face. 

(1) Please see citations in Basic Information.

Technology is integral to Story Works' delivery and engagement of youth. Additionally, technology plays a central role in creating and preserving opportunities for tech-free, face-to-face connection.

Digitally recorded stories and online videos produced by students launch the project in new classrooms and allow teachers to share a youth-led invitation with their students. These students then share stories, connect face-to-face, and, if they wish, opt back into technology to engage further in the project –by recording and submitting stories to youth-produced podcasts, and/or submitting their edits and additions to the curriculum itself.

Story Works project alums are currently working hard to produce a series of videos to better support workshops in other classrooms. 

Will also use these new resources as we continue to partner with teachers and students in Anchorage and Unalakleet, Alaska (a majority Alaska Native (Yupik/Inupiat) community in Northwest Alaska. We will also expand to a new school district and work with students in Kake (a majority Alaska Native community in Southeast Alaska). We are excited to work with an additional 600+ students over the next twelve months.

Strategic Vision:

One year from now: Story Works will build capacity to support two full-time paid staff in our Anchorage office. This increased capacity will allow us to work with an additional 250 students directly and an additional 2,500 students indirectly (through educators who use our curriculum in other communities).

Three years from now: Story Works's curriculum will reach 10,000 students nationwide. Teachers and youth participants will be involved in delivering engaging professional development and training to educators from around the US and abroad. Program capacity will be sustained by a mix of earned income, individual donors, and grants.

Our solution will be deployed through:

-Student presentations at conferences (For example, three students presented at DL18 in March 2018 and students from Story Works will be leading sessions at the National Council of Teachers of English and International Bullying Prevention Conference in Nov. 2018.)

-Professional development for teachers.

-Our website will continue to host recordings of example stories told by youth, instructional videos produced by youth, and curriculum (edited and continually revised by participating educators and youth).

-Podcasts produced by Story Works Youth Team will feature stories submitted by students participating in classroom story workshops in schools around the US and beyond.

Currently, more than 1,800 high school students have participated in Anchorage and Unalakleet, Alaska.

We are also reaching students through teachers who are using our curriculum in communities elsewhere. We have not been tracking these numbers but plan to track them as we build capacity.

Additionally, Story Works students stories reached estimated audiences of over 20,000 through live events, broadcasts of recordings on Alaska statewide radio and television (huge audiences!), and podcasting (smaller but growing audiences!). We anticipate the audience reached by these and other stories will continue to grow!

During the 2018-2019 school year, we will reach another 1,000 students directly (in Anchorage, Unalakleet, Kake, and potentially also Bethel, Alaska).

We anticipate reaching 1,000 to 2,500 additional students in the 2018-2019 school year through educators in communities beyond our immediate reach.

Within three years we expect to reach 2,500 students directly annually in Alaska and 10,000 or more students indirectly annually throughout the US and beyond.

Teachers- teaching, learning, responding to students. Ability to mentor each other and provide powerful professional development -with student support. 

Students- individually: expertise in their own stories; collectively: tremendous curricular expertise. 

Story Works as an organization: skill in offering an invitation to bring the lives true stories that matter into the Language Arts classroom. 

And... fundraising! And bookkeeping! And lawyering!

Note: Regan Brooks is the only member of our team with an official profile but you can learn more about our other team members at storyworksak.org/about

Our revenue model includes a healthy mix of earned income (largely from professional development), individual giving, corporate support, and grants. 

Although we only recently (Dec 2017) became a nonprofit, we have strong relationships with individual donors, a wide base of goodwill in Anchorage and Unalakleet, and are building relationships with several foundations in Alaska. We have also received a mini-grant from a national funder and have been awarded both a “Contributions to Literacy in Alaska” award and a National Storytelling Network “Brimstone Award.”

We believe Solve can help us reach a wide audience and help us build the capacity to reach that audience!

We have an amazing and exciting project to share. But we can't share it without the capacity to connect with educators in other communities. Solve can help us build capacity, connect us to others who can improve our use of technology, and reach our intended audience of educators and implementers.