Voice of Witness is excited to announce that we have been awarded the 2024 Stetson Kennedy Vox Populi Award from the Oral History Association (OHA).
This honor is being presented to our staff at the OHA Annual Meeting this week in Cincinnati, OH. It recognizes VOW’s long-term commitment to advancing human rights and social justice through oral history and community-driven storytelling.
The Vox Populi (“Voice of the People”) Award is given to individuals and organizations for “outstanding achievement in using oral history to create a more humane and just world.” Established by the Stetson Kennedy Foundation, the award honors work that elevates oral history as an important tool for advocating for human rights. We are grateful to be recognized alongside past awardees who have contributed to the field of oral history.
Since 2005, Voice of Witness (VOW) has worked to advance human rights by amplifying the voices of people impacted by—and fighting against—injustice. The organization supports essential storytelling as part of broader efforts to dismantle systems of oppression. Through programming and partnerships, VOW develops and activates community-based oral history projects, teaches ethical storytelling practices, and creates educational and advocacy resources.
Voice of Witness has documented the oral histories of hundreds of individuals directly affected by and resisting human rights crises around the world, including incarcerated people, undocumented immigrants, agricultural workers, Indigenous peoples, communities displaced from public housing, and many more. Through our education program and community partnerships, VOW has served tens of thousands of students, educators, and activists across the US and globally. Our oral history methodology has been used to train a broad range of organizations and advocates for human rights and dignity, including journalists, attorneys, artists, organizers, and medical professionals.
Thank you to the OHA and the Stetson Kennedy Foundation for this award, and to all our past and present staff, partners, narrators, and community whose experiences and collaboration shape our work every day.
We look forward to connecting with other practitioners at this year’s OHA conference and continuing our journey to create a more inclusive, just world through the power of storytelling. In a political context of increased othering, xenophobia, censorship of marginalized voices, and anti-democratic efforts, this work is more important than ever.
Interested in working with VOW? Don’t hesitate to contact us.
Hear from our collaborators:
“VOW helped make a previously overwhelming and unfamiliar realm feel both accessible and exciting. I am very grateful for this experience… As an organization, VOW supports folks to recenter stories told by communities themselves in order to shift misrepresentations in mainstream media, create narrative change, and advance justice.”
—VOW Storyteller Initiative pilot fellow
“VOW has been a remarkable partner to us as a community-based organization and has truly helped us to develop our oral history programming in support of low-income immigrants and asylum seekers. VOW has led over 10 storytelling trainings for the team and community narrators focused on ethical storytelling for social justice and has supported numerous events where our clients share their stories with the wider community. It has been a transformative process to witness narrators connecting with their voice and receiving compassionate support as they build confidence and agency to speak out on policy issues that directly impact their lives. We could not have achieved the impact we have over the past five years without VOW’s partnership and guidance.”
—East Bay Sanctuary Covenant
“As English teachers, we have collaborated with Voice of Witness for over a decade and can attest to their profound impact on social justice advocacy and education through oral history. The consistent support and resources provided by Voice of Witness and their staff have been instrumental in the success of our program. It’s impossible to overstate the impact that Voice of Witness has had on our teaching and our lives outside of school.”
—Teachers at Amos Alonzo Stagg High School
The leadership and skill of the VOW staff have led to transformations in clinicians and healthcare providers who don’t think they have time to listen to patients and families tell their stories. Many providers change their practice to make space for open dialogue that helps them provide person-centered care. VOW has been a tremendous partner in the work to reduce the burdens that people with cognitive impairment and their care partners face. Through their oral history work, the VOW team helps build hope and respect for all human beings. We have been proud to partner with them over the years.
—UCSF Memory and Aging Center
