"Our storytellers take the current moment's anxieties and fear, hopes and aspirations, to reframe a story about a core relationship. The storyteller of an incident of trauma, or a situation of achievement, or even a seemingly mundane interaction is made to service the establishment of new equilibrium- a homeostasis- in the storyteller's sense of self. That equilibrium may not be stable, but the story becomes a successful marker, a lingering positive feeling. You have returned to some critical part of your past, a part that hung like a shadow over your identity, and you have begun to make sense of that experience. Story has many jobs, as a learning modality through memory, as a way to address our connection to the changing world around us, as a form of reflection against the flood of ubiquitous access to infinite information, as the vehicle to encourage our social agency, and finally, as a process by which we best make sense of our lives and our identity." (Lambert, 2013, p. 14)
I am not afraid or shy to share that was placed into foster
care at the age of 10. I grew up and aged out of foster care in Maine, never
feeling like I had a home, belonging to a family. I struggled with homelessness,
being a single mother, and dropping out and returning to college, and along the
way discovering who I am and who I want to be. Along my journey I finally
graduated with my BSW last year at the age of 32, and went right into my MSW
where we are today. I did my undergraduate field placement at Preble Street
Resource Center and loved it so much that I work there today, and is one of my
driving forces for wanting to develop and find innovative affordable housing
here in Maine. I believe that we need to do better, provide better and not
accept that there are hundreds to thousands of homeless men, women and children
here in Maine without stable affordable housing. Working at the Preble Street
Teen Center, seeing cycles of homelessness starting at too young of an age is
fueling my fire to want to do better, not accepting that this is the way the
world is and will be. I will not accept it, because I too was there once,
without a family, without a home, and no hope of a better future. BUT, I
decided that I wanted better, that I was not going to be one of the statistics
that we read about in our social work books, that I wanted to help others like
myself, other youth in care, others experiencing homelessness, others with
dreams and no one to hear them or believe in them. SO today I am working on
building the Maine Chapter of Foster Care Alumni of America, a place where
those in foster care can feel acceptance, trust, belief in their dreams and the
support they need from others who have been there. So this is a bit about me...
and why I am here in this class.
The words I read in this weeks chapter for Digital
Storytelling sits with me every moment of my day, as I think of how we can use
stories to change peoples perspectives, beliefs, to just be heard in a
therapeutic way of recovery and acceptance of who we are and who we choose to
become. Little did I know this past Friday as I was sitting for 9 hours getting
a tattoo I have been planning for months with a quote that rang true to who I
am, a quote from Carl Jung. As I was reading the Digital Storytelling book, I
was excited to see the line, "Freud's' colleague Carl Jung...helped create
a sense that we all had a "personal mythology" (Lambert, 2013, p.11),
I find it so true that we all have a sense of our own mythology, because though
our culture and pasts may influence us, we have our on sense of self, our own
passions and direction we want to take in life.
The reading also made me think of a friend I made this
summer at a conference, Crystal L. Williams, she gave me her book she wrote of
her poems. I decided to revisit her poems in an idea I had to incorporate into
this class inspired from Marty's Ted Talk last week of the police officers
writing poems. I wanted to share a few with you.
STRONGER
I am STRONGER than I ever imagined
BOLDER than I ever thought
possible
Confidence in what is
GREATER
Faith that forever lasts
Past what I think of feel
This life is real
Peeling back all the things
I have tried to conceal
Revealing the truth
Living proof
I was born to be GREAT.
 |
| (Click For YouTube of Crystal's "I'm not a Case Number" poem) |
DREAM IT
I'm not conceited,
I'm just in agreement
with the dream
that precedes
the very thing
that I'm believing for.
So if you keep looking at ME
you best believe...
If I can dream it,
YOU WILL SEE IT!
I started to
think....what else can I see for ideas for bringing awareness to youth in care
and the struggles, the statistics, the triumphs... I found this on your tube on
soldiers and foster care, inmates and foster care and so on.... along the way I
found other great links for songs, productions for awareness of foster care,
please visit the links in the references to hear and see some great videos
produced! And just think of the possibilities... the chance we have to create
digital stories about housing needs in Maine using stories from remarkable people
to build our path, our journey to developing and growing as social workers.
References:
Knight, K., & Schwarzman, M. (2006). Beginner's Guide to
Community-Based Arts. Oakland, CA: New Village Press.
Lambert, J. (2013). Digital Storytelling. Capturing Lives,
Creating Community. New York: Routledge.
Williams , C. L. (2013). Stronger. An Inspirational Journal.
Restorical Publishing, LLC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-cl=84503534&v=7WHIUQ7RP4M&x-yt-ts=1421914688&feature=player_detailpage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-cl=84503534&v=6V4ITwHEZhQ&x-yt-ts=1421914688&feature=player_detailpage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-cl=84503534&v=p1kk34VRN1g&x-yt-ts=1421914688&feature=player_detailpage
http://faithbridgefostercare.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-cl=84503534&v=LraOiHUltak&x-yt-ts=1421914688&list=PLAEEEF203531568E2&feature=player_detailpage
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