Telling My Story employs journaling, storytelling, and reflection to break down barriers of preconceptions about differences. Pati Hernandez developed this program in 1999 as a non- profit organization and has offered it successfully over 60 times locally, nationally and internationally, in correctional facilities, drug rehabilitation centers, high schools, colleges and universities, and community
centers. By practicing listening, speaking and withholding judgment in a group, we build relations based on trust, communication, and dialogue. In order to do this, we must first identify and dismantle the visible and invisible walls of preconception and bias that surround us, which many times we actively help to create and maintain. Typically, a TMS program runs 4-8 weeks. During 2020, we successfully started to offer the program virtually with great success. Given the dire conditions we face today as a society, threatened by global pandemic, climate change, white supremacy, rampant inequality, fear, polarization, and immobility, this program highlight themes of race, class, and gender as we explore our social experiences and unpack our silenced realities. Over the course of the sessions, participants work to identify the social walls they experience and create on a daily basis… in order to name them, own them, and achieve better communication, understanding, and dialogue about their effects on our lives, and how we can address and/or dismantle them.
