Throughout the year, Puentes New Orleans offers a series of storytelling & filmmaking workshops that empower youth to explore the immigrant experience in a safe and welcoming space and who are interested in learning how to use storytelling, including film and digital media, to enhance and amplify immigrant youth issues through advocacy and organizing.
This initiative comprises the wellness component of a larger project focusing on immigrant youth leadership development and youth-led advocacy, organizing, and coalition building. Focusing on developing and facilitating multi-racial immigrant youth story circles, the purpose of this initiative is to:
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To provide immigrant youth with a safe and welcoming space to discover and share their own voices, stories, and struggles with racism and xenophobia;
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To provide hands-on opportunities for immigrant youth to discover the power of storytelling as a healing device, especially as it relates to the psychological and emotional tolls associated with the immigrant experience;
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To teach immigrant youth how to effectively incorporate digital media tools in collective narrative practices and advocacy campaigns designed to undermine racist ideologies and unconscious bias; and
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To provide immigrant youth with the opportunity to work together with youth of color from partnering organizations to build empathy, understanding, and solidarity around issues important to them.
