OVERVIEW
At The Identity Project we are education innovators thinking creatively. We believe that the key to success in school and life lies in igniting a cycle of self-actualization in each student. Therefore, we have developed a model that harnesses the power of creativity to spur this cycle, transforming students’ relationships to themselves, their learning, and the world they live in. The Identity Project is an adaptive intervention in documentary storytelling for underserved. Our school-based programs are seamlessly integrated into the academic day, and provide invaluable opportunities for youth to explore selfhood, identity and personal power of voice. Through a specialized curriculum in documentary storytelling and critically reflective identity work, our programs nurture self-efficacy improving readiness to learn on the most fundamental level. Our innovative pedagogy is grounded in evidence-based practices of creative youth development, culturally responsive teaching, relational neuroscience, trauma-informed teaching and learning, multiple modes of knowing, and the science of learning and development. Amidst the multitude of strong education reform models, few recognize that a student’s readiness to learn must change before meaningful academic success is possible. Even fewer engage the arts as a catalyst for holistic, student-centered change. Fewer still are grounded in the study of trauma and the science behind how it creates a crisis of self, impacting identity development across a lifetime. The Identity Project is unique in that it incorporates all three of these powerful reform strategies. In essence, our model offers a profound educational reframe by establishing the foundation for students to develop the capacities to self-heal, self-actualize and self- advocate — essential precursors to engaged, life-long learning.
Programs Serving Native Youth
The Identity Project operates exclusively throughout the Southwest US, zeroing in on regions with the highest densities of youth in crisis. In addition to our open-access programs, we have a dedicated portfolio of programs that serving Native American youth ages 12-18. Our programs operate in partnership with district-level Indigenous education divisions and are implemented in underserved public schools and schools on tribal lands. In an effort to ground our work in the cultural values and knowledge of the Indigenous youth communities we serve, we have developed sustained partnerships with the New Mexico Public Education Department’s Indian Education Division and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture. These entities have overseen the development of the Identity Project’s programs serving Native youth. These programs have been designed in consultation with leading experts in intergenerational trauma and grief, cross-cultural mental health, arts education, relational neuroscience, and creative youth development. Because we believe communities heal from the inside out we prioritize hiring Native artist educators to lead our school-based programs serving Native youth.
Responding to a Need
Today, a staggering number of youth in our nation are growing up in crisis. As reported by the National Center for Children in Poverty, 15 million children in the United States - 21% of all children - are living below the federal poverty threshold. Startlingly, New Mexico has one of the highest child poverty rates nationally. A systemic problem of this nature creates inevitable fallout, occurring most visibly in the form of traumatic stress. Current research reveals that traumatic stress is deeply dangerous to developing brains, and manifests within the body on cellular level. When this layer of risk is compounded by scorching histories of intergenerational trauma it leaves youth increasingly vulnerable to falling victim to the opportunity gap.
Despite this stark reality, science offers hope for educators working with youth who are facing adversity. Research that is now gaining traction within the current climate of education reform suggests that nature operates via nurture. In other words, through strands of scientific study such as epigenetics we now know that DNA can change in response to environment. Additional research has shown that positive and sustained relationships with adults have the potential to prevent and even reverse negative effects of traumatic stress. If embraced, this research has the potential to profoundly effect the way we design education interventions and realize prevention science in the classroom. The Identity Project’s work in New Mexico is born from a belief that youth dealing with the implications of traumatic stress, deserve educational experiences that respond directly to their needs. More specifically, these students need experiences that can lift them out of this war zone, which manifests internally, ravaging their sense of self-worth and squandering their richness of identity.
District & School Partners
In the 2020-2021 academic year, we are operating programs serving Native youth in five of New Mexico’s highest need school districts including Bernalillo, Espanola, Santa Fe and Taos. This year our district and school partners include; Santa Fe Public School’s Native American Student Services, Bernalillo Public Schools’ Indian Education Department, Santa Fe High School, Capital High School, Santo Domingo Elementary & Middle School, Vista Grande Charter High School, and Taos Academy Charter School.
PILLARS OF PRACTICE
Museum of Indian Arts & Culture Master Artist Series
Designed in partnership with the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, this series brings some of the most visionary Native American, Latinx and New Mexican voices in literary, performing and visual arts directly into the classroom. Initially established in 2017, this series has continued to iterate over the years, providing students with exposure to artistic excellence each year. In this series, Master Artists design and deliver workshops in which students investigate identity and personal acts of literacy through an interdisciplinary array of storytelling modalities.
Training Immersion
The Identity Project’s Training Immersion is our signature professional development program. Designed to ignite critical and creativity inquiry among teaching artists, educators, and school leaders, this 40-hour training introduces participants to The Identity Project’s original pedagogical framework and curriculum through an in-depth immersion in experiential learning. In addition to experiencing a curricular immersion in documentary storytelling and critically reflective identity work, participants develop an understanding of core evidence-based practices integrated into the fabric of our program model. These practices include creative youth development, culturally responsive teaching, the science of learning and development, multiple modes of knowing, applied empathy practices, and somatic practices for trauma recovery. Supplemental expert-led modules further saturate the learning environment by introducing critical perspectives, cutting edge research, and enduring ideas that further contextualize our work with underserved Native American youth.
Our Artist Educators
We make every effort recruit and hire collaborating artists who self-identify with the youth communities we serve. Central to our program is the Identity Project Artist Educator. Our Artist Educators have a deep love of meaning-making, an active artistic practice, and a belief in community-driven social change. As creative catalysts and teachers at heart, our Artist Educators are poised to dive in and begin working with schools and youth communities from day one. In addition, because our curriculum is highly interdisciplinary in nature and explores multiple modes of storytelling within the classroom (literary, performing, and visual arts), our Artist Educators are well equipped to work across disciplines and explore the interconnectedness of art forms with students.
For more information about bringing The Identity Project to your school or community, please reach out via our contact form HERE