Shelter & Place
StoryMuse and Shannon M. Turner were incredible! Not only did CHRIS 180’s youth benefit tremendously from working with StoryMuse to tell their stories, “Shelter & Place”, our first ever Drive-In event was spectacular, it was a creative and powerful witness for their stories. Our young people were very proud of their accomplishments and our friends and supporters were able to “touch” the mission from a safe COVID distance. CHRIS 180 is more than grateful and we are eager to work with StoryMuse again.
MISSION
To heal children, strengthen families and build community.
To improve our community by providing children, adults, and families with high-quality, trauma-informed behavioral health services and support systems.
CHRIS is an acronym that stands for our core values: Creativity, Honor, Respect, Integrity and Safety.
PARTNERSHIP
This project was supported by Alternate ROOTS as well as by many community members in an Indiegogo campaign. We also received generous donated materials such as tents, masks, screens, and other supplies to help us realize our dream to make the event happen outside and pandemic-safe.
Recent Client:
The SPOT @ CHRIS 180
OVERVIEW
StoryMuse and The SPOT at CHRIS 180 teamed up to present “Shelter & Place: an interactive drive-in storytelling performance.”
Youth & young adults (16-26) who were either currently unhoused or in the process of building their way out of homelessness were involved in a unique storytelling intensive the week before the evening of July 17, 2020.
The project was originally conceived to happen over the course of seven weeks, inside, with a performance in CHRIS 180’s theatre. Once we found ourselves in the midst of a pandemic, we had to work hard to pivot and keep going. We wanted to make sure that these emerging young adults were not left behind during the long stretch of summer when many programming and service options were shut down.
The work was supported by a grant from Alternate ROOTS. Because that award came before the pandemic, we also conducted extensive additional Indiegogo campaign and resource gathering from the community in order to pivot the program from its original conception to something that could still happen safely during the time of COVID-19.
The final product was a pop-up drive-in theatre, an opportunity for the public to experience their stories on the big screen, while storytellers interacted with them outside their vehicles. Each storyteller had a cardboard sign they’d painted themselves with a message they wanted to accompany their story. At the end of the show, all the storytellers walked en masse through the cars with the backside of their signs revealing a unified message that said,
“We Matter.”
Photos by Arvin Temkar.