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Community DC Arianna Ross Story Tapestries Final for 11.23.25 · Community D.C.

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Good morning, and welcome to another edition of Community DC.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: I'm your host Dennis Glasgow. This morning, we welcome to
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  Speaker 1: the program for the first time Ariana Ross. She is
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  Speaker 1: the founder and CEO for Story Tapestries, a nonprofit in Washington,
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  Speaker 1: d C. That uses arts to foster inclusion, personal growth,
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  Speaker 1: and community development by providing performances, workshops, and residencies. It
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  Speaker 1: partners with schools and communities to develop programs for people
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  Speaker 1: of all ages that focus on areas like literacy, workforce development,
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  Speaker 1: and mental health. Here's my conversation with Ariana. I hope
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  Speaker 1: you enjoy it as much as I did.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Ariana, Good morning.
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  Speaker 1: Well, it is great to have you for the first
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  Speaker 1: time on Community DC and I am stoked to talk
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  Speaker 1: to you about all the amazing things that you've done
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  Speaker 1: over the last fifteen years with Story Tapestries. And I
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  Speaker 1: have a feeling that our audience and myself are going
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  Speaker 1: to be introduced through a lot of cool things that
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  Speaker 1: you and your team do. But I think we should
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  Speaker 1: start from the beginning of fifteen years ago because I
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: always love to find out about origin stories, about why
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  Speaker 1: somebody comes up with an idea, especially nonprofit, because we
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  Speaker 1: know in this program. It's not easy to start a
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  Speaker 1: nonprofit and then keep it going for as long as
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  Speaker 1: you had the last fifteen years. So can you tell
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  Speaker 1: us about the origin stories, about why you started story
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  Speaker 1: You asked.
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  Speaker 2: About our origin story, and I think it is really
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  Speaker 2: important to understand that for us, it was about the
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  Speaker 2: need before we were not for rovit. I've actually been
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  Speaker 2: doing this work for twenty six years, and before we
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  Speaker 2: were not for profit, I found myself ariana Ross, kind
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  Speaker 2: of by my lonesome, coming upon schools, libraries, community centers
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  Speaker 2: that couldn't afford my services. I was working with another organization.
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  Speaker 2: I was a storyteller. I was a writer, I was
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  Speaker 2: an educator, I was a performer. I was doing all
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  Speaker 2: the things that Story Tapestries now does. But I was
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  Speaker 2: frustrated because people couldn't afford my services. And when I
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  Speaker 2: would say, well, what do you mean you can't afford that?
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  Speaker 2: And I would go all right, and I would go
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  Speaker 2: to a local business and I'd say, to local business,
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  Speaker 2: here's what I need you to do. You know that
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  Speaker 2: you have the funds, could you give the money to
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  Speaker 2: the school the library. They will then give the money
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  Speaker 2: to the organization. I was working for and then that
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  Speaker 2: organization would pay me. That's a little ridiculous. It was
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  Speaker 2: probably about I would say, eight years into this that
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  Speaker 2: someone came up to me and said, Ariana, you should
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  Speaker 2: found a not for profit. Essentially, you are basically doing
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  Speaker 2: exactly what a not for profit would do, except that
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  Speaker 2: you don't have a board, a team, a staff to
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  Speaker 2: support you. And my first response was no, I don't
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  Speaker 2: want that. That's a lot of work. But eventually they
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  Speaker 2: convinced me and they helped me to understand. And one
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  Speaker 2: of our very first employees as a not for profit
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  Speaker 2: was a woman, Lorian Beal's. Laurian is now the vice
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  Speaker 2: president of the organization and our chief development officer. She
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  Speaker 2: is my right hand and my left hand, and it
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  Speaker 2: really you know, she has been along the journey with
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  Speaker 2: me the entire time, and it truly came. In the beginning.
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  Speaker 2: We had a budget, if you're not gonna believe this,
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  Speaker 2: of ten thousand dollars a budget, wow. And now we're
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  Speaker 2: a little over a million and we're growing, and it
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  Speaker 2: really all starts with the need. In the very beginning,
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  Speaker 2: we're very clear one hundred percent of our programs need
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  Speaker 2: to be free to the community. That doesn't mean that
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  Speaker 2: the community can't apply for a grant, they can't fundraise,
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  Speaker 2: they can't do all that they need to do to
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  Speaker 2: get the money. But we will help them. If they
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  Speaker 2: don't have the ability to write a grant, we will
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  Speaker 2: write a grant with them. And then we just want
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  Speaker 2: to make sure that individuals have access to programs whenever possible.
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  Speaker 1: Well, let's do this before we talk about all the
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  Speaker 1: many things that you and your team do for the community.
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  Speaker 1: It really is extraordinary. I always like to talk and
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  Speaker 1: ask about mission and vision and what are those now.
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  Speaker 1: They might have changed over fifteen years, but as you said,
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  Speaker 1: turned it out to where you are today. What our
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  Speaker 1: mission and vision for Story Tapestries.
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  Speaker 2: I think that what is key about our mission and
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  Speaker 2: our vision is that we are really what we call
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  Speaker 2: a communications organization and an arts service organization, which essentially
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  Speaker 2: means is that we use the arts as a tool
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  Speaker 2: to solve community problems. So any community problem can be
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  Speaker 2: solved with the right tools in place. Correct. Yeah, and
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  Speaker 2: so if you are hungry and you are dealing with
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  Speaker 2: food insecurity, but you don't have access to the economic
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  Speaker 2: means to battle that, well, how do you do that? Well,
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  Speaker 2: you need a job, or you need to increase your pay.
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  Speaker 2: So that's where story tapestries. We provide tools that allow
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  Speaker 2: people to be able to increase their economic means, or
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  Speaker 2: meet their goals, or or or to solve a problem.
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  Speaker 2: That's one of our big values and our vision. Really
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  Speaker 2: what has always been focused on, how do we put
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  Speaker 2: the tools in the hands of those who needed So
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  Speaker 2: all of our programs are custom designed for the community.
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  Speaker 2: We don't say we have the answers. We always say
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  Speaker 2: that the community has the answers. They come to us,
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  Speaker 2: and then we custom design what are the tools in
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  Speaker 2: our toolbox that we can use to be able to
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  Speaker 2: support that. Initially part of our vision was to create
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  Speaker 2: a network of individuals who believed in the power of
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  Speaker 2: the arts to change community. But I have to say
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  Speaker 2: we did that and five years ago we looked around
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  Speaker 2: and we realized, oh my goodness, we have this beautiful network.
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  Speaker 2: Now we need to put this network tease.
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  Speaker 1: And I should also say, with you talking about that,
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  Speaker 1: you obviously made it. I don't know if it was
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  Speaker 1: a major league pivot, but you had to grow and
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  Speaker 1: to grow that's what you did.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely we grew, and we one of the ways in
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  Speaker 2: which we grew is we actually now have two entities
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  Speaker 2: under the same umber. We have Story Tapestries Incorporated, which
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  Speaker 2: serves Maryland Northern Virginia and it does do some national work.
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  Speaker 2: And then we actually recently in the last year, created
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  Speaker 2: Story Tapestries of Washington, d C, which makes it easier
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  Speaker 2: for us to serve Washington DC directly, partner with business leaders,
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  Speaker 2: community members, the library system. We do a lot of
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  Speaker 2: programming with the DC Public Library System, but having a
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  Speaker 2: DC entity as well as a Maryland entity, it creates
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  Speaker 2: a platform by which we can better serve and support
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  Speaker 2: and collaborate with the community outstanding.
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  Speaker 1: Well, listen, I want to really get a knee deep
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  Speaker 1: into all the programs and things that you offer, and
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  Speaker 1: we're going to find about how you make your money
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  Speaker 1: and how people can donate and volunteer, and also your partners,
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  Speaker 1: because I know partners are a real big deal, especially
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  Speaker 1: when it comes to public schools and other entities out there.
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  Speaker 1: But what that said, I think we got everybody's attention
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  Speaker 1: about kind of the cool things that you do, Arianna.
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  Speaker 1: So what that said, is there a criteria when somebody
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  Speaker 1: wants to work with Story tapestries, whether it's a child
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  Speaker 1: or a young adult, and how do they, you know,
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  Speaker 1: start the process about working with you. What is the
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  Speaker 1: criteria to working with you guys?
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  Speaker 2: So it is one hundred percent need based, meaning that
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  Speaker 2: and right now and across the board, I would say
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  Speaker 2: needs are ever changing. Right so, we have pressing needs
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  Speaker 2: that we are really looking to address early childhood educations,
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  Speaker 2: sort of gap in the requirements, pay rates for early
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  Speaker 2: childhood educators, disparity of services, while simultaneously we also work
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  Speaker 2: with seniors on the isolation of seniors. In addition, I
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  Speaker 2: don't know if you're familiar with the social determinants of health.
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  Speaker 2: The social determinants of health include mental health and well being,
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  Speaker 2: education from sort of zero all the way on up,
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  Speaker 2: as well as workforce development and community safety. It oftentimes
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  Speaker 2: is someone will come to us and they'll say, we
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  Speaker 2: have this gap, we have this issue, we have this concern.
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  Speaker 2: We are looking for a collaborator, a partner to fill
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  Speaker 2: that gap. I'm going to use a beautiful example of
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  Speaker 2: Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless. They have a men's
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  Speaker 2: shelter and a family shelter, and we provide programming specifically
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  Speaker 2: to their men's shelter, and our programming has changed based
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  Speaker 2: on their requests. So we have a consistent program which
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  Speaker 2: is our Digital Literacy program, which is digital solutions that
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  Speaker 2: bridge the divide. We are always looking for speakers to
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  Speaker 2: that program as well as funders. Comcast m is one
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  Speaker 2: of our primary funders of that as well as Adobe.
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  Speaker 2: And for that program, the men receive digital skills and
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  Speaker 2: public speaking skills as well as financial literacy skills in
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  Speaker 2: order for them to be able to get a job,
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  Speaker 2: and it is artists that actually provide those skills to
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  Speaker 2: them to help them feel more confident. A prime example
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  Speaker 2: of success is one man. He had only come to
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  Speaker 2: one workshop, and normally people come consistently to many workshops.
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  Speaker 2: He came to one workshop and then a few weeks
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  Speaker 2: later he came back just grinning ear to ear. He
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  Speaker 2: had told us that because of the workshop, this was
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  Speaker 2: a man who had been homeless for quite some time,
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  Speaker 2: he had had a stroke. He did not feel confident
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  Speaker 2: about his public speaking abilities, his ability to enunciate his
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  Speaker 2: words effectively, but because of the public speaking workshop, he
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  Speaker 2: had been able to do an excellent job in an
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  Speaker 2: interview process and he had a job that's huge, and
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: it was. It was huge at the same time, right,
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  Speaker 2: we also in the same entity. We worked with them
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  Speaker 2: to beautify their space. We worked with a funder. The
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  Speaker 2: men took photographs, beautiful photographs of themselves. But also I've
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  Speaker 2: just kind of they took art and they really like
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  Speaker 2: changed it and transformed. Maybe they took a picture of
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  Speaker 2: one of them like looking up and they put a
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  Speaker 2: background behind it, and then they use that art to
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  Speaker 2: beautify their wellness room. And I have watched the men
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  Speaker 2: walk into that space and their entire body language changes
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  Speaker 2: when they see the artwork on the walls. Now you
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  Speaker 2: go from there to a school, right, I can't tell
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  Speaker 2: you I am the CEO. I still go into schools
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  Speaker 2: and communities. I myself, I am a storyteller and a dancer
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  Speaker 2: and a consultant. I partner with business leaders and community members.
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  Speaker 2: But now I get the honor of going in and
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  Speaker 2: seeing our forty plus artists out in the community, our staff,
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  Speaker 2: our mighty staff of seven that is ever growing. And
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  Speaker 2: I have had teachers, community members walk up and give
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  Speaker 2: me the biggest hug and mentioned me you know, I
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  Speaker 2: was feeling fed, And then your artist came in and
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  Speaker 2: worked with my little people, and I saw how they
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  Speaker 2: started to pay attention to more. They began to develop vocabulary.
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  Speaker 2: A child who'd never spoken before was suddenly making noise
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  Speaker 2: and speaking. Thank you for reminding me why I became
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  Speaker 2: a teacher in the first place. At a time that
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: is really frustrating and difficult, I needed this reminder. Wow,
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  Speaker 2: And I think that is that is really key or
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  Speaker 2: seniors who will say to you, you know, I wasn't
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  Speaker 2: sure how to communicate with my grandchildren and my children
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: they don't live here. Learning how to take photographs and
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  Speaker 2: then send the photograph as like an album or a
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  Speaker 2: little film might seem like easy to as they put it,
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  Speaker 2: to a twenty somethingter or a teenager, but for me,
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  Speaker 2: who was ninety four years old, it allowed me to
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  Speaker 2: feel like I mattered again.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: You know.
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  Speaker 1: The one thing that I'm gathering before side the incredible
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  Speaker 1: thing of the arts that we're going to talk more about,
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  Speaker 1: that's really in your wheelhouse along with your team. But
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  Speaker 1: I'm also learning along with our audience here, is that
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  Speaker 1: you're giving real world issues people access to it so
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  Speaker 1: they can do what you and I might think is
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  Speaker 1: pretty simple, but they don't know how to do that,
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  Speaker 1: and now they can execute that and feel really great
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  Speaker 1: about themselves and maybe even get a job. Like you
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  Speaker 1: told that's incredible.
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  Speaker 2: And it is really about practical solutions. Right. You obviously
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  Speaker 2: are very confident in communicating, right that you're on radio,
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  Speaker 2: That is not a worrior or a concern for many people. Communication.
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  Speaker 2: How do you write an email? How do you tell
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  Speaker 2: a story? How do you advocate your child is struggling
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: in school? How do you advocate? Recently, Washington Gas sponsored
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: story type issues. They came on as a sponsor and
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: they asked us to come in and we worked with
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  Speaker 2: I believe is twelve different small businesses and we actually
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: work with these small businesses on how to communicate their
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: story had increased the return on their investment. And at first,
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to lie to you, who was hard
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: I was. I said to my team, this is not
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: going to be easy. These were contractors, plumbers, pipe layers,
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  Speaker 2: They're not artists, and yet we got them to write
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  Speaker 2: an eleven word poem called a Loon. We got them
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  Speaker 2: to tell stories. And one woman who was a woman
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  Speaker 2: owned contractor and construction worker walked out of there and
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  Speaker 2: she said to me, you know, I now understand the
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  Speaker 2: power of my words to be able to win a contract.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: And I recognize the fact that she one of her
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: sort of high important principles was that she hires individuals
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  Speaker 2: with intellectual and developmental disabilities, not necessarily to be the
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: lead on a project, but to support the project. And
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: she had first told me, all, I don't have a
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  Speaker 2: story to tell. I'm just a contractor. Everybody's a contractor
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: in this room. I asked her, though, what makes you unique,
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  Speaker 2: my team explainer, Whatever makes you unique is what's going
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: to sell you that's going to help you win that contract.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: And I think that's really critical. Whether you are a
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  Speaker 2: younger person trying to learn how to navigate the world
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: and ultimately either go to college or get a job right,
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: or you're someone who was in the job force but
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: now lost your job because of a health reason, or
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: because of an environmental reason, or because of financial reasons.
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  Speaker 2: You know, you need to have the ability to communicate
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  Speaker 2: your vision and what makes you a unique individual. And
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  Speaker 2: I think that's critical. I will tell you there's one
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  Speaker 2: element aspect that people don't think about that is a
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: very practical piece of the puzzle. We over the last
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  Speaker 2: I would say three years. Since twenty twenty two, we
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  Speaker 2: began working with psychologists and therapists and offering our team trainings.
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  Speaker 2: When you walk into a room where there are individuals
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  Speaker 2: dealing with serious mental health issues, how do you navigate that?
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  Speaker 2: And we are not, So we have therapists that we
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: contract with that if we find that we really need
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: that serious therapeutic partnership, we have the ability to sort
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: of make that happen. And I think that's a really
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: critical piece of the puzzle and a critical tool that
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: we leverage and that we utilize because we recognize that
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  Speaker 2: artists are not therapists. However, there's a gray area of
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  Speaker 2: Oftentimes they walk into a room, be it with a
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  Speaker 2: business leader or a two year old, and that individual
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  Speaker 2: is dealing with a mental health crisis. They're dealing with depression,
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: they're dealing with stress, they're dealing with burnout, worries that
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: maybe they shouldn't Maybe they're a five year old and
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: their family is currently homeless. There was a young man
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  Speaker 2: he was in the third grade and his family had
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: been homeless for approximately a month. They were living in
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: a hotel and the school said, you know, he has
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: not stayed in the classroom for but five minutes a day.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: He consistently leaves and has him out down. It was
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: just stress. Our team met, we really brainstormed what could
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: we do, how could we help him. We have on
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: staff individuals Jamie Cowan who has a master's degree in education,
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: Jessica Wallach who is an accessibility specialist, doctor Sue Snyder
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: who's a reading specialists was on our board as a
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: past board member, Valley bous Slausburg, Jikibiko. We all met
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: and we thought, all right, what can we do to
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: help this young man? And we worked with the teacher
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: to give the teacher the tools that she needed and
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: success looked like We stayed in the room and he
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  Speaker 2: participated in writing a story and he completed the tasks
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: he was required to complete for forty five minutes.
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  Speaker 1: Wow.
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  Speaker 2: And I know for some people that might be like, well,
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: a child should stay in the classroom because that's it. Yes,
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: I'm not disagreeing with you, but you have to understand
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: when a child or an adult is facing trauma. There's
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: actually a neurologist explain this to me. Their brain pattern
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  Speaker 2: shifts and they just don't have the capacity to be
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: able to stay put to listen. Their body and their
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: adrenal glands causes them to panic and they just fly
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: or you know, fight or flight, or they get angry
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  Speaker 2: and they start to fight, even though what they really
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: need to do is take a breath.
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  Speaker 1: Well, that's one of those stories when I ask people,
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  Speaker 1: you know, why do you get up in the morning,
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  Speaker 1: and those are one of the ones. You know, this
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  Speaker 1: is why we get up to make a difference. That's
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  Speaker 1: an extraordinary story. I do want to talk about some
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: other programs, and I know that it would dominate the
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: whole podcast for thirty minutes that we talked about all
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: the incredible programs you do, but maybe some that you're
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: most proud of or have been the most effective. By
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: the ones you've already mentioned, can you, for our audience
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: talk about a couple more that really, you know, kind
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: of hit the nail on the head.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely. So. We have our program called Write Your Story
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  Speaker 2: Right Your Story is about building foundational literacy skills for
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: individuals zero through age seven seven eight, and we also
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: work with professional development workshops for the teachers that are
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: supporting those children. The idea being that we really need
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: to combat and I say combat because sometimes it feels
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: like a little bit of a fight the learning curve
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: so that every child enters the third grade knowing how
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: to read and feeling confident in comeable in a classroom
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: as their parents should feel confident and comfortable too, so
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: that they are writing their own story, They're writing their
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: own pathways, so that nobody else is writing it for them.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: I know if that makes sense, Yeah, it does. And
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: then and then in connected to that is our program
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: called steam Stem plus Arts Learning Full Steam Ahead, the
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: idea of infusing the arts into various environments. We are
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: funded by PEPCO Echelon to really specifically in Prince George's County,
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: but we would like to expand that work on really
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: enhancing the learning in science, technology, engineering, the arts in
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: math by develop but also while simultaneously developing social emotional
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: learning skills. And then chart chart I've spoken with I've
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: spoken about quite a bit, but chart is really the
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: idea that you're charting a positive mental health pathway and
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: that is all ages, right, how do you chart your
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: own positive pathway? And finally, I think one I spoke
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: about earlier was the digital solutions that bridge the divide
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: and digital solutions that bridge the divide also has kind
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: of two elements to it. One is sort of our
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: fourteen and above population, and then we have what I
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: call stage stories, which are the seniors who might need
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: the digital solutions, but they also many seniors are very isolated.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: It really helps them to feel connected to others, to
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: be able to tell stories. Sometimes because of sage stories,
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: a senior will tell me, you know, this is the
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: first time that I have found that other people actually
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: care about what I have to say.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, one of the things that I'm taking
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: away from And I'm sure this was part of the
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: mandate that you had with your team when you started
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: this fifteen years ago, and then I've learned over the
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: years people want to be simply acknowledged and also but
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: you're also very inclusive with every demographic, which I know
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: is a wide net for you and your team, but
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: still whether it's young people or young adults, or adults
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: or older people, that net is really wide. And I'm
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: sure that was by your design. But it's ambitious too,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: I imagine it.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: Is, and it was interesting. We revisited our mission and
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: vision at this point three years ago, and then last
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: year we worked with a team of business leaders through
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: Compass pro Bono Services, and they supported our ability to
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: sort of develop a marketing plan, but also to actually
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: be able to develop our value statement. And if it's
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: okay with you, I'd like to read it because I believe,
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: yeah help people to understand. So our value statement says
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: our value proposition, which is Story Tapestries. Let me actually
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: correct that. So we worked with One of the things
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: that I think was really important for us is because
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: we are so huge, people have a hard time figuring
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: out what bucket do we fit in? Right? Wait you
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: do this? Wait you do that? Hold on, you serve
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: zero to one hundred and five. How And we worked
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: with Compass pro Bono Services to develop a marketing plan
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: as well as Capital I pro Bono Services, and they
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: helped us to develop our value proposition. I'd like to
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: read that because I think it will help to clarify
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: things for people. Story Tapestries addresses vital community issues from
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: millions of people of all ages and abilities, using collaboration
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: and the arts in all forms to create and deliver
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: tailored accessible programs. So it's the idea that we address
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: vital community issues for people of all ages and abilities,
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: and we do that through collaboration plus the arts to
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: deliver the programs, which means nothing is off the table
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: as long as we have the capacity to do it.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: There was a point in our process in our history
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: where I didn't see us having the capacity to best
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: support individuals within the justice system, the criminal justice system,
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: either they had been in it or they had recently
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: left it. I reached out to our large network of artists,
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: our large network of alumni, of trainers of educators, and
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: discovered that we actually had within our network artists that
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: had quite a bit of experience. We had an educator
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: that I didn't know this, that she had been a
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: parole officer and she had worked within the justice system.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: So we actually really worked over the last couple of
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: years to train our team and now we are actively
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: seeking funds and people are actively seeking us to be
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: able to support these kinds of programs. The key to
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: that is that we never just do something. We never
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: say yeah, we can solve that problem. We always first
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: ascertain whether or not we have the coright people, whether
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: or not we are being culturally responsive, whether or not
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: we are paying attention to the right services, the right
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: voice with the right partner.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: Well, I appreciate you sharing all that, and I think
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: this is a good segue because we have about five
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: minutes left. I know that when it comes to being
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: a nonprofit, being partners and donations and volunteering, they're all
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: huge and in this iHeart ecosystem that we have with
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: this program. There's a lot of people that we get
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: very excited about nonprofits that are making a difference, like
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: you and your team out there. So with that said,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: how are you funded and how can people be a
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: part of what you do?
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: Absolutely so, people can send an email and the best
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: email to send it to would be an administrator at
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: signstorytapestries dot org. That will go to our operations director
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: who then disseminate it to the right person so we
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: can leverage you as a volunteer. You can also go
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: to our website www dot story tapestries dot org and
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: you can make a donation directly on that website. Now,
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: if you are someone who is economically challenged at the
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: moment and you cannot make a donation, you can, as
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: I mentioned, send that email and volunteer with us. In addition,
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: you could also make a donation of books. We're always
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: looking for individuals who who could give gently used books,
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: who could give art supplies, or could donate time and
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: of course treasure is always valued. If you'd like to
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: make a donation, as I mentioned, you can go to
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: our website and you can make a donation using that
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: donate button. If you would like us to come and
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: speak to your business about the work that we do,
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: or maybe do a professional development workshop for your business,
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: and in at the same time you make a donation
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: to us. That is something that we do often and
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: it's a great exchange. We recognize that businesses have needs
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: to and as a not for profit we can support you. Finally,
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: in the month of November, everyone was thinking of the
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: month of November and December as sort of those giving months, right,
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: and there's a lot of people asking you, the listener,
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: to give. Can you make a donation here? Could you
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: volunteer here? And yes, we will not argue. If you
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: want to give us a million dollars tomorrow, we would
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: happily take a million bucks.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: Good for you.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: I happily take a million dollars. If you're like I
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: would like to hand you a million dollars. I will
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: not argue with you. However, I do and I do
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: think it is important that we give back to you.
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: So on December the second, on Giving Tuesday, every single year,
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: we keep an eye out on our website. We haven't
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: put it up just yet, but we will have the
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: ability for you to register to join us for an
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: hour life lunch time where you can laugh, listen to music,
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: hear stories. We on Giving Tuesday are going to give
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: back to you, the audience who gives to us every
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: day of the year. If you don't have the ability
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: to give monetarily but want your cup filled, join us
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: on Giving Tuesday for an hour of your time and
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: just listen and smile and laugh. Finally, I do think
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: it is important to recognize that everybody is looking for resources,
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: Dennis and resources to feed their belly, resources to fill
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: their mind, receister to fill their heart. Please keep an
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: eye out on our website. We are constantly putting resources
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: out there for parents, for educators, for business leaders. In
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: the next couple of weeks, in the next sort of
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: month or two, you will start to see more resources
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: available as we are going to be launching a new
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: website soon.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: How exciting and this.
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: New website will make our resources, much more accessible to
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: the public and the community and easier for you to navigate.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: Very good, and let's give the website addrest to everybody
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: one more time.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: Yep. It is www dot story tapestries dot org. And
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: if you want to reach out to partner with us,
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: to work with us, to volunteer with us, please send
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: an email to administrator at story tapestries dot org. Or
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: if you're a phone person, you can always call our
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: office and leave a message, and that is three zero
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: one nine one six six three two eight.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: Understanding well, Ariann, I'm so glad that we got to
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: feature story Tapestries for the first time on Community. You see,
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: I'm thrilled at what you and your team do. And
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: as I said a litle bit early in our conversation,
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: you have cast a wide net, but it sounds like
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: you're knocking out of the park. I know you're working
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: really hard to make it all work for everybody out there.
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: So thank you so much for all that you and
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: your team do, and we really appreciate you joining us
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: on the show.
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much. We appreciate this opportunity.
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: Don't let biased algorithms or degree screens or exclusive professional
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: networks or stereotypes. Don't let anything keep you from discovering
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: the half of the workforce who are stars. Workers skilled
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: through alternative rops rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: to tear the paper ceiling and see the stars beyond it.
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: Find out how you can make stars part of your
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: talent strategy at Tear Thepaperseiling dot Org. Brought to you
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: by Opportunity at Work in the AD Council.
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  Speaker 2: I killed so clean nations and make the world a
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  Speaker 2: better place.
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: Learn more at che can Stems, a message brought to
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: you by the AD Council.