Explore VOW Highlights in Annual Report

Check out VOW’s Annual Report below for a snapshot of our programming.

This report shares highlights from our work during the previous fiscal year, July 2023 to June 2024, presenting a brief glimpse of select activities. As Voice of Witness approaches its 20th year cultivating oral history work to advance justice and dignity for all, we’re required to explore the ways that we can sustain our work, build resiliency, and engage new communities. We hope that you’ll join us on this journey.

Executive Director Natasha Johnson writes:

“It’s an especially significant report for me, as this November marks my one-year anniversary at Voice of Witness. It’s hard to believe how much the VOW team has accomplished in that time. Together, we’re responding to an evolving world, both in the way information is consumed and in the urgent need for projects that promote narrative change toward a more just world.“

Our Year in Numbers:

1,439 people trained through VOW workshops and events
3 new human rights oral history projects in development
5,600+ reads of our Ethical Storytelling Principles resource
16,000+ students reached by our lesson plans
Over 1,100 downloads from our digital library of resources amplifying marginalized voices and supporting community-based storytelling
24 oral histories documented from people unjustly impacted by the automation of social benefits systems in 10 countries
170 educators attended VOW’s keynote plenary at the Teaching English to Speakers of a Second Language conference in California

Highlights:

We spent months in conversation with partners to uncover urgent gaps and how VOW could best support grassroots storytellers, which led to the development of our new fellowship program, the Storyteller Initiative. This program will provide training, guidance, and financial support to selected fellows working on their own oral history-based projects with marginalized communities.
We began using a thematic approach to re-engage our archive and activate our oral history work through a new lens. Our theme for 2024-25 is Navigating Democracy: Resistance and Belonging through Storytelling. VOW is focused on contributing to an equitable democracy by providing high-quality, community-based storytelling; supporting civic engagement; and addressing misinformation and harmful narratives.
VOW launched the 23rd title in our oral history book series, Beginning Again: Stories of Movement and Migration in Appalachia. These stories and ongoing community engagement around the project are especially necessary against the backdrop of a presidential administration where JD Vance has promoted his narrow, inaccurate depiction of Appalachia and Trump is threatening draconian, racist actions against immigrants and refugees.
VOW held community meetings to gather input on our new, in-development Unhoused Neighbors project. The project will document and amplify the voices of unhoused leaders and activists, providing a platform to share destigmatizing stories on homelessness and community-led resistance, as well as create educational and advocacy materials to support teachers and advocates.
VOW released the first comprehensive evaluation of a Voice of Witness high school class, which outlined the benefits of an oral history-based course on key student skills—including social-emotional learning, critical thinking, communication—and experiences fostering empathy, challenging stereotyping, and building curiosity and belonging.
We partnered with the NYC Department of Education to create a suite of “Hidden Voices” lesson plans that are available as grab-and-go resources for teachers across the over 1800 schools that make up the NYC school districts.
Our education program grew our ongoing intergenerational storytelling project with middle school students and elders, supporting English language learners and low-income seniors to build connections and learning using oral history interviewing techniques.
VOW hosted a dynamic event series with independent oral historians to explore lessons learned from their on-the-ground work. VOW provides this public programming to democratize learning about oral history methodologies and ensure advocates, media makers, and organizations have the training and tools needed to do ethical community storytelling work. Featured speakers highlighted projects on forced separation of migrant families at the border, rural queer experiences, and music-based intergenerational storytelling in NYC’s Chinatown. Webinar participants commented:

“The format made the topic accessible to a non-technical audience. Oral history is something of value not just for the information/historic content but also for building connections and strengthening community… Loved the insightful lessons on how to collaborate with narrators to create policy and narrative change… Inviting, intimate, informative, helpful.”

Looking forward to 2025:

We’ll continue exploring new avenues for multimedia programming, making oral histories accessible to new audiences. Created in partnership with Lemonada Media, we just launched our first two podcast episodes focused on voices of resistance.
VOW received a Creative Work Fund grant to develop a new interactive project, Setting the Table: Stories of Food & Belonging.
Our inaugural Storyteller Initiative fellowship launches in January 2025, providing funding and training to narrative changemakers.
We’re looking forward to building out a community partner advisory group for the Unhoused Neighbors project.
In response to increased interest, we’ll be hosting a slate of webinars and workshops in 2025. Sign up for our newsletter to stay updated.
Stay tuned for more info on our Community Voices Initiative, a new in-depth training series for organizations looking for support with gathering first-person narratives. If you’re interested in participating, reach out to: ela@voiceofwitness.org.