South End Stories: Healing through History and Creativity is a program that originated at Orca K-8 School in Seattle, headed by seasoned educators and community leaders Donte Felder, his wife Tanisha Brandon-Felder, and his father Dr. Donald Felder. In that collaboration, we celebrated the arts and the importance of playful learning, and embraced our incredible community of Orca scholars, staff, families, and neighbors. The program culminated with a vibrant community showcase.

 

To carry out that program, we received a generous grant from the King County Best Starts for Kids initiative to improve trauma-informed practices in public schools, followed by another grant from Seattle University to develop new and innovative trauma-informed arts curricula and support educators in serving their students. We’re using those funds to encourage our community to share their stories through film, dance, writing, visual art, and performance.

 

Since that inaugural program at Orca, we've grown our offerings to implement with multiple schools and organizations, and expanded our community to serve even more educators, administrators, families, and young people. This year, our staff grew by more than 100%. We've welcomed a diverse group of passionate and knowledgeable people into our family who are deeply dedicated to bringing joy and justice into classrooms and communities.