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2020 Reflections & Appreciations

Dear VOW community,

It's been a difficult year, but we are so proud of what the Voice of Witness education team accomplished in collaboration with our dedicated network of educators, students, and community partners.

In 2020, we launched How We Go Home: Voices from Indigenous North America and the accompanying free curriculum. The lesson plans have already received a record number of downloads, highlighting the need for Indigenous stories and perspectives in the classroom—and resources for educators to teach these topics.

Voice of Witness worked hard to pivot our educational services to an online format so we could continue delivering culturally relevant, arts-based learning opportunities that advance empathy, critical thinking, communication, and social and emotional learning for students. We also engaged in a number of exciting new oral history-based consultancies with organizations around the country.

All of these efforts reflect our commitment to sharing tools for amplifying unheard voices. The challenges this year have been immense, and our work is needed now more than ever. We hope you’ll take a minute to read about our end-of-year campaign.

Finally, we’d like to offer our gratitude and respect for the students and teachers we’ve learned from this year. Your courage and perseverance are inspiring and help us look toward 2021 with a renewed sense of purpose.

In solidarity,
Erin Vong and Cliff Mayotte
VOW Education Team

"Decolonizing the Curriculum": An Interview on VOW's Free Lesson Plans

Take a deep dive into the newest lesson plans from Voice of Witness in an interview with VOW curriculum specialist Suzanne Methot (Asiniwachi Nehiyaw/Rocky Mountain Cree) in The Elective.

These free lesson plans for our new collection of oral histories, How We Go Home: Voices from Indigenous North America, provide deep historical framework and resources for understanding contemporary Indigenous experiences and the impact of colonization.

Learn more about creating safe learning spaces, implementing Indigenous pedagogies, and teaching for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students.

We're also thrilled to announce that Suzanne will be joining the Voice of Witness Education Advisory. Welcome, Suzanne!

Read the Full Interview

"Don't silo Indigenous issues... No matter what topic you're studying in the classroom, make sure to bring in—for at least one question or part of the discussion—the Indigenous experience of that issue. Make sure that Indigenous education is embedded in your classroom or in your lessons and units. It doesn't have to be about an "Indigenous issue"; all of these issues relate to Indigenous people."

-Suzanne Methot, VOW curriculum specialist

News from the Field

Voice of Witness has been partnering with a class at Latitude High School in Oakland on a semester-long oral history project called called “Democracy Beyond the Vote," where students interview a community member about how they participate in democracy. Learn more about this inspiring project!

After Hurricane María, Dr. Ricia Anne Chansky, English professor at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, partnered with Voice of Witness and more than 100 students to collect and amplify the stories of survivors across the island. Congratulations to Dr. Chansky for receiving the Oral History Association’s Teaching Award for this project!

Student Oral History Project: Democracy Beyond the Vote

Access

VOW Editor Receives Teaching Award for Hurricane María Project

Read

Job Opportunity: Curriculum Specialist

We are seeking a Curriculum Specialist to collaborate with VOW education staff on developing, writing, and creating curriculum for our upcoming oral history book, Mi María: Narratives of the Hurricane and Its Aftermath in Puerto Rico.

Share this opportunity with your networks!

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About Voice of Witness

Voice of Witness (VOW) is an award-winning nonprofit that advances human rights by amplifying the voices of people impacted by—and fighting against— injustice. VOW explores issues of race-, gender-, and class-based inequity through the lenses of migration, displacement, and the criminal justice system. The VOW Book Series depicts human rights issues through the edited oral histories of people—VOW narrators—who are most deeply impacted and are often at the heart of solutions to address injustice. The VOW Education Program connects over 20,000 educators, students, and advocates each year with these stories and issues through oral history-based curricula, trainings, and holistic educational support.

You can support us by purchasing books in the Voice of Witness series
or by making a direct tax-deductible donation.

Copyright © 2020 Voice of Witness, All rights reserved.

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