REGION – ACES in Action is responding to the collective hardships of the Covid-19 pandemic by reaching out to the public to gather your stories and share them with the community in digital and physical publication. The Voices of Resilience project will use creativity to celebrate the moments of strength and hope we’ve found together apart. Submissions are due Nov. 29.
Covid-19 has impacted us all. We have experienced fear, joy, and uncertainty. Throughout this time, we have also seen and shown great resilience. Each of us has a story related to this pandemic. Stories have the ability to break down barriers, connect one another, heal, and provide hope. Voices of Resilience brings light to our unique stories and forms of expression and serves as a reminder that we are all in this together. We create a safe space to share and to learn from each other as we connect similar experiences through creative exploration. In seeing and hearing each other’s artistic viewpoints, we push back against the loneliness and fear that has been an undercurrent throughout this pandemic.
ACES in Action, a community collaborative, is composed of a variety of organizations including restorative justice, schools, family services, substance misuse prevention, libraries, mental health, early childhood, and more. When the pandemic began, the collaborative discussed how it could help and realized the healing power that storytelling could offer the community. Inspired by the success of story core projects following natural disasters like Hurricane Irene, we decided the best thing we could do was to offer a new platform for creative sharing to the people of Windsor and Windham counties.
We are collecting artworks, songs, videos, and written stories through our website. After submissions have been gathered and formatted, we will publish them on the website, and written or visual pieces will be put into a physical magazine-style book that we will distribute at participating organizations throughout the community. The first submission deadline is Nov. 29, 2020 and the first publication will be out in mid-December. This project will be ongoing throughout 2021 with quarterly publications, and we will potentially hold an open wall gallery exhibition of selected works later on in the season.
For more information, check out our website at www.vtvoicesofresilience.org.