Today we’d like to introduce you to Aubrey Valencia.
Hi Aubrey, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
The Storytellers Project is my sacred purpose, it is the culmination of everything I have ever wanted to be or do, the reason for my experiences with trauma and mental illness, and the transformation that occurred in order for me to live my best life. It is the synthesis of all of my education, work experience, life experience, and activism, that helps others to heal and transform their own lives. The idea for The Storytellers Project came when I was teaching after-school programs in Denver schools. There was a young man who was getting into trouble nearly every day. One day I pulled him aside and started to ask him about his family and home life. It was clear to me that his behaviors had more to do with trauma than any other factor, I recognized this because of my own experiences of growing up with domestic violence and abuse. The little boy told me he didn’t have a father because his father was murdered in front of him. All of a sudden, all his behaviors made sense. I went back to the other adults and asked them if they knew about this. “He just uses that as a crutch”, said one teacher. I was stunned. “I went through things and you went through things we turned out okay.” As I thought of my own struggles with PTSD, depression, and anxiety I thought, I definitely did not turn out okay. I asked her if we were teaching him how to cope with what he experienced, “I know I am not teaching him how to cope with it.” I knew I had to do something about this. I begin to create and test some of my first lesson plans for The Storytellers Project. As a child art and books provided the escape and stress relief from the poverty, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse I experienced. As an adult telling my story was healing and reduced stigma and shame normally associated with these experiences. I knew I had something more to offer the children I worked with. The Storytellers Project is my way of sharing that resilience with the youth, breaking and healing the cycle of violence, and increasing the love and compassion in the world.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
I never intended to become the Executive Director of a non-profit organization. I went to school to become qualified to be an art teacher so learning everything I need to know to run a successful non-profit organization has been like independently earning another college degree. For first 3 years of The Storytellers Project, we grew steadily as we built partnerships and implemented our curriculum in several schools. At the beginning of 2020, we became a non-profit organization right before the world closed due to Covid-19. We lost all of our school contracts when schools closed. During the stay-at-home orders, one of our school partners kept us afloat by ordering art kits for their students. We received a couple of small grants during 2020 and when students went to online learning, we pivoted our programs as well. At the end of 2020, we were awarded our first two significant grants and we returned to in-person programming with some of our school partners. We made it through a pandemic when many other small businesses and non-profits did not survive.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My goal upon graduation from college was to become an art teacher but that didn’t quite pan out the way I planned. After being laid off from my first art teacher position at a charter school I begin substitute teaching. In my 7 years as a substitute teacher and long-term sub, I took over 7 different classrooms from teachers who had quit or been fired. I taught bilingual kindergarten, first, and third grade, special education, high school English, middle school history, and pretty much everything except art. After 7 years without a full-time teaching job, I left public schools and worked in youth development teaching mental health awareness, sexual violence prevention, tutoring, and art. I was frustrated by the way youth were treated in both the school system and the non-profit sector. In 2017 while working 6 part-time jobs I decided to pilot my Storytellers Project curriculum at the DU Bridge Project. The kids enjoyed the projects and I founded The Storytellers Project and became an Executive Director of an arts organization, finally returning to my roots as an art educator.
What are your plans for the future?
I plan to expand The Storytellers Project nationally by licensing the curriculum and training teachers all around the country on how to use it. I also want to expand our transformative Breaking Chains Building Bonds that help formerly incarcerated parents to heal and rebuild the wounds of incarceration to prisons in Colorado and around the country.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: https://www.storytellersprojectart.org
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/storytellersprojectart/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/
