History

The Sonoma County Survivor Project began in 1988 as an endeavor to document stories and images of members of community groups who had suffered severe deprivation of human rights. The project started as a Sponsored Program of Sonoma State University's Academic Foundation under the auspices of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust. This original project focused on Holocaust survivors, Japanese Americans interned during World War II, and Cambodian survivors of the Pol Pot regime and has become a web-based and traveling exhibit, complete with curriculum support for teachers. In October 1998 the organization secured non-profit 501(c)(3) status and was renamed The Survivor Project. The Sonoma County Survivor Project continues to be one of its current programs and serves as a model for new programs.

A second program, the Essence of Acceptance, grew out of a need for an effective human rights and diversity program for secondary students. The Essence of Acceptance offers curriculum materials and training for high school teachers to integrate instruction in human rights, oral history taking, and art projects into their humanities curriculum. Students interview members of ethnic and cultural groups who have survived the loss of human rights and document these oral histories through stories, poems, photographs, video and fine arts projects. These projects are then displayed throughout the community.

In 1999, The Survivor Project received a small grant from the California Council for the Humanities to complete and implement the curriculum, and during the 2000-01 academic year, the Essence of Acceptance program was formally introduced at Maria Carrillo High School in Santa Rosa. The following year, Essence of Acceptance was implemented at four additional secondary schools. The program was awarded a two-year Tolerance Education Grant from the State Department of Education through the Sonoma County Office of Education to work with its most at-risk students in the Court, Community and Alternative Schools for the school years 2001-02 and 2002-03. The Community Foundation Sonoma County granted funding to The Survivor Project to bring Essence of Acceptance to Petaluma high schools in collaboration with the Healthy Community Consortium for the 2002-03 school year. Listening for a Change has also worked with Sequoia High School in Redwood City supported by funding from the Peninsula Community Foundation. In addition to grants and contracts, Listening for a Change is supported through newsletter solicitations and a major fundraising event and exhibit held each summer .

The original Sonoma County Survivor Project and student work has been displayed in numerous public venues including: The Sonoma County Museum, Chops Teen Center, Finley Community Center, Sonoma County Office of Education, Luther Burbank Center, Sequoia High School Library, Sonoma State University, Santa Rosa Junior College, Casa Grande High School, Santa Rosa High School, Healdsburg High School, El Molino High School, Petaluma High School, Novato High School, Sonoma High School, the Marin Office of Education, and Congregation Shomrei Torah.

Our Community Listening Project trains volunteer community members in the art of oral history and engages them in interviewing their neighbors here in Sonoma County. The process of interviewing people of different backgrounds helps to heal fractures and misunderstandings caused by socio-economic, racial, and ethnic diversity, and to forge a cohesive community identity. It's also a lot of fun! Free monthly workshops teach community members how to conduct an oral history interview, and all interviews are recorded by Listening for a Change.

Listening for a Change's newest program, Diversity & Inclusion for the workplace, merges Listening for a Change's mission of "promoting understanding and acceptance of human diversity" and the need for employees to learn active listening skills to interact more effectively within their own work culture and with clients, customers and patients served.