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Upstander Project Team
More than $3.4 million in grants awarded to ...

Upstander Project is thrilled to be one of the grantees as part of this year’s Boston Cultural Council/Reopen Creative Boston funding!

Classroom

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Parents can help children learn to stand up to hate. Here’s how.

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“‘The first time I got called the ‘n-word’ I was standing outside my sixth-grade classroom exchanging a book from the lockers,” says Kimu Elolia. He wasn’t prepared for the weight of the word or how it would leave him feeling paralyzed and isolated for weeks but says he “didn’t have language to explain what I was experiencing.” Elolia, 29, is the creative producer for Sonic Union and now creates podcasts for children designed to foster empathy for the Black experience, which he says will incentivize them to stand up for one another.

Helping our children understand how and why to stand up for one another is becoming more and more important.”

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Generations later, Mainers confront a genocide that still remains overlooked

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“Dawn Neptune Adams dreams of being hunted.

For much of her life, the nightmare remained the same: Adams runs in the woods, chased by unseen captors.

“It is intergenerational trauma,” Adams explained, “from my ancestors being hunted and tortured.”

Adams is a member of the Penobscot Nation and the bounty that was placed on her Indigenous ancestors more than 250 years ago still torments her sleep and her waking hours.”

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Teaching Indigenous Peoples' Day with the Documentary Dawnland

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“About a year ago, a mesh orange fence showed up in a section of a park my family frequents. A tree near the mesh fencing was adorned with stuffed animals at its base; signs offered the explanation. The mesh fence was there to demarcate sacred land. This end of the park was a burial site of children who once attended an expansive Indian school in this part of Albuquerque. The school sprawled across acres. A street crossing through the area still reflects this past: Indian School Road.”

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Upstander Academy Registration Now Open

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We hope you plan to join us for the Upstander Academy and take advantage of the discounted registration fee before space runs out. 

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Peace Studies between Tradition and Innovation

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Authored by US and Canadian academics, educators, and activists, the chapters in this book demonstrate, how scholars and practitioners in the field are using the important knowledge, skills and values of their foremothers and forefathers to address new issues, integrate new technologies, and make new partners in their efforts to create a more just and humane world.

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Building the Coexist team at one high school

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Today is the final workshop with the 25 faculty and staff members before we bring the students in to join this new team we're forming at East Hartford High School (CT). The educators have spent this school year deepening their understanding of genocide and othering, bystanding and upstanding, retaliation and forgiveness, and practicing new skills (Guided Visualization, Talking Circles, Walk the Wall, Snowball). In the process our Upstander Project team is supporting social emotional learning, cultivating interdisciplinary collaboration among teachers from distinct disciplines, and creating a safe space for learning and discussion that can benefit students. This is all leading up to April 3rd when over twenty students join the Coexist Team. In September 2013 the Upstander Project launched a yearlong pilot project in partnership with EHHS.  The plan: work with the adults in the fall/winter months and invite the students to join us in the spring. The vision: use our documentary film Coexist and the activities in the Teacher's Guide to help the school strengthen its leadership culture with an eye toward making othering socially unacceptable.

What ideas would you like to share that support social emotional learning at your school or in your life?