Students who attend this year’s “Architects of Change” day camp at Troy University’s Rosa Parks Museum will take part in an international program designed to inspire young people to challenge prejudice, intolerance and hate.
The “Architects of Change” summer day camp, which was established in 2016, will be held 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, May 27 – June 6, and is open to all rising sixth, seventh, eighth, or ninth graders in the River Region.
“Architects of Change” teaches students about the individuals, groups and strategies that made the Civil Rights Movement successful, connects current civil rights and social justice issues to past events and equips students to be forces of change in their schools and communities through nonviolent conflict resolution,” said Donna Beisel, Director of Museum Operations.
This year, in addition to workshops on conflict resolution and field trips to historic civil rights sites in Montgomery, Birmingham and Tuskegee, campers will take part in the first “Global Story Circle” program initiated by Heartstone, the UK-based arts/cultural organization which produces and presents a range of stories that bring people together across backgrounds, nationalities, races, faiths and cultures, to see a common humanity. The Rosa Parks Museum, which has collaborated with Heartstone in various programs in the past, will be the first site in the United States to join the Global Story Circle program. Beisel adds, “We are thrilled to bring the Story Circle program to the U.S. and have the opportunity to connect with communities across the globe who continue to combat prejudice and intolerance.”
Story Circles are groups of children age 9 and up along with supporting adults who use the stories, specifically the young adult fantasy novel The Heartstone Odyssey, as a vehicle to generate discussion and debate on the issues of prejudice and intolerance and the need to work cooperatively, putting aside differences, on the issues raised through each story. The Story Circle taking shape at Rosa Parks Museum during the “Architects of Change” camp is being replicated in Kosovo with three Story Circles in Pristina, Podujeva and Mitrovica, with the support of the National Museum of Kosovo and in Australia with the support of Mungathirri and Queensland National Parks.
In Kosovo, the Story Circles have a particular significance in that the stories are being used to bring together children of Albanian, Serb, Roma and other communities. In Australia, the project incorporates the Dreamtime stories being contributed by Don Rowlands, Aboriginal Elder and Ranger in Charge at Mungathirri National Park. One of those stories, the Rainbow Serpent, is being used in all the participating locations alongside the other story components.
The end result of the Story Circles will be an artwork project produced by the children in each location, connecting Scotland, Alabama, Kosovo and Australia in a new, inclusive way, while presenting the hopes and aspirations of the next generation on some of the world’s most difficult issues and challenges. It is particularly significant that this project will be part of this year’s NAIDOC festival in Australia in July, the countrywide event, now in its 50th year, presenting Aboriginal and Torres Island Strait peoples and their culture.
For more information about the Heartstone Global Story Circles project, visit www.heartstonechandra.com.
