Looking Forward/Looking Back

PROJECT IMPACT91% of the Looking Foward/Looking Back youth improved their research skills

91% improved their writing skills

100% improved their photography skills

82% reported that participation made them want to learn new things

73% reported that participation in the VOICES program helped them feel more connected to and knowledgeable about their culture

73% improved their photography skills

73% reported that participation encouraged them to help others

73% reported that participation encouraged them to stand up for their beliefs

73% reported that participation encouraged them to take personal responsibility for their actions and decisions

From November 2005 through May 2006, the Looking Forward/Looking Back After School Project mentored 11 Tohono O’odham youth to tell their personal and community stories using the form of :

digital storytelling.

Throughout the seven months of the program, the Tohono O’odham teens worked

three days a week after school at the San Xavier Education Center in the San Xavier District of the Tohono O’odham Nation with VOICES guest artists Kimi Eisele and Josh Schachter (as well as VOICES partner artists from Seattle’s Bridges to Understanding and Denver’s Center for Digital Storytelling) who mentored them in:

interviewing,

writing,

photography, and

the digital storytelling software program, Adobe Premiere.

so the youth could :

collect and express their community’s stories through the digital arts;

build understanding between themselves and their tribal elders;

build connections between their Tohono O’odham past and their Tohono O’odham present;

improve their artistic, emotional, and social skills; and

share their digital stories with other indigenous communities worldwide through VOICES project partner, Bridges to Understanding.