OUR MODEL

At The Identity Project we are education innovators thinking creatively. We believe that the key to success in school and life lies in igniting a cycle of self-actualization in each student. Therefore, we have developed a model that harnesses the power of creativity to spur this cycle, transforming students’ relationships to themselves, their learning, and the world they live in.

The Identity Project is an adaptive intervention that utilizes documentary arts to address barriers to identity development and learning in underserved youth. At its core, The Identity Project offers young people an invitation Home to themselves, an opportunity to create an artistic home within their bodies, celebrate the seat of their originality and their personal power of voice. Our school-based programs are seamlessly integrated into the academic day, and provide invaluable opportunities for youth to explore selfhood and identity. Through a specialized curriculum in documentary storytelling and critically reflective identity work, our programs nurture self-efficacy improving readiness to learn on the most fundamental level. Our innovative pedagogy is grounded in evidence-based practices of creative youth development, culturally responsive teaching, relational neuroscience, trauma-informed teaching and learning, multiple modes of knowing, and the science of learning and development. Throughout the course of an implementation students build skills in communication and storytelling, and acquire essential 21st century competencies, ranging from creative problem solving and collaborative investigation, to a growth mindset and social emotional learning. Students also deepen their core cognitive skills, enabling them to heal through the expression of personal narrative and begin the invaluable process of learning to value themselves from the inside out.

PILLARS OF PRACTICE

Activating Readiness to Learn

The Identity Project takes a deeply creative approach to addressing the challenge of readiness to learn in underserved youth. Amidst the multitude of strong education reform models, few recognize that a student’s readiness to learn must change before meaningful academic success is possible. Even fewer engage the arts as a catalyst for holistic, student-centered change. Fewer still are grounded in the study of trauma and the science behind how it creates a crisis of self, impacting identity development across a lifetime. The Identity Project is unique in that it incorporates all three of these powerful reform strategies. In essence, our model offers a profound educational reframe. As educators, instead of asking, “is this student smart?” we are asking, “is this student ready to learn?” This shift initiates a positive ripple effect, beginning in the body of the student and spiraling outward into our students’ communities. Ultimately, this reframe establishes the foundation for students to develop the capacities to self-heal, self-actualize and self-advocate — all essential precursors to engaged, life-long learning.

Emergent Theory of Education

Grounded in an emergent theory of education, our model is constantly iterating in response to the needs of youth communities we serve, the personal assets of our core team, and emerging evidence-based practices in the field of education. Our commitment to applying an emergent theory of education is evidenced by our pedagogical framework and our original curriculum in documentary storytelling and critically reflective identity work. We consider these foundational documents to be “living documents,” continually growing and iterating in response to emerging evidence-based practices in education. As of the 2021 academic year, we have now woven into our program model the following evidence-based practices.

culturally responsive teaching
creative youth development
multiple modes of knowing
science of learning and development
trauma-informed teaching and learning
somatic practices for trauma recovery
community-based art-making
mindfulness-based practices
relational cultural theory

Arts as Catalyst for Change

The Identity Project invites young people to explore their personal power of voice through a transformative curriculum in documentary arts, narrative practice and critically reflective identity work. Over the course of an implementation, students are guided through three primary learning phases including poetry, photography and performance. At The Identity Project, we believe documentary arts combine the act of creation with a motivation to tell truths and reveal honest realities. Once immersed in our program, Identity Project students quickly discover that they themselves have the inner-capacities for self-healing and self-advocacy that they crave. For underserved youth, these realizations are exacting and seminal, and for Identity Project students they build the foundation for serious creative and critical inquiry. Students emerge from our program equipped with a newfound capacities to employ empathy, value humanness, and honor the inherent narrative in each of us.