Their assistance will help ease the blow from loss of federal funding opportunities, as related in a story from North Country Public Radio last April (https://tinyurl.com/3kur8wke) about the impacts in the North Country.

The Charles F. Kettering Foundation is partnering with OurStoryBridge on OurStoryBridge Listens: Present in the Moment (www.ourstorybridgelistens.org) to collect brief oral histories in a new category called Democracy & the Arts. Democracy & the Arts is a collection of personal narratives from people who have experienced challenges imposed by current efforts to limit free speech and creative expression in the arts and humanities. This new, national non-partisan Partner Project by OurStoryBridge Inc. documents the current circumstances in the United States that are deeply impacting Americans and others around the world.

Specific to the Charles F. Kettering Foundations partnership, Joni Doherty, Senior Program Officer for Democracy & the Arts said, “The stories in the Democracy & the Arts section of OurStoryBridge Listens: Present in the Moment offer us the opportunity to listen to personal experiences about how people are affected by and responding to challenges to our First Amendment rights. Each story reminds us of the role the arts and humanities play in supporting freedom of expression, preserving history, and creating inclusive communities.”

The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) has granted OurStoryBridge operating support to assist New York State communities to initiate, build, and sustain their own online short-form oral history projects; engage new and existing audiences in New York through enhanced marketing efforts; and increase activities relevant to the Semiquincentennial. This grant was made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

The Harry Chapin Foundation has provided the third and final year of funding for the SchoolStoryBridge initiative. Their support helps us continue to grow our programs for educators and their students. These primary source materials enhance lessons, allowing students to learn history, local and national, through community voices from across the country.

And finally, we are thrilled to share that we have been awarded two grants from the Cloudsplitter Foundation. Their mission support grant will help OurStoryBridge Listens: Present in the Moment document the impact of our current historical moment on Adirondack communities through collecting the stories of Adirondack nonprofit organizations, their leaders, staff, volunteers, and constituents. Their capacity building grant will help us plan the future of OurStoryBridge Inc.

Jery Y Huntley, MLS, Founder and President of OurStoryBridge Inc. said, “These online, short-form oral histories address current short attention spans and focus on personal narratives from young and old, with the goal of creating understanding and kindness, so needed today.”

OurStoryBridge Partner Projects are patterned the initial project, Adirondack Community (www.myadirondackstory.org), which since 2019 has recorded the stories of people in the small town of Keene in the Adirondack Mountains of New York state. OurStoryBridge Inc. has since become a national 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit supporting 43 Partner Projects in 15 states. The short-form oral histories of 3 to 5 minutes are accompanied by photographs and posted online on dedicated websites.

Thank you to the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, Harry Chapin Foundation, and the Cloudsplitter Foundation!

OurStoryBridge Inc. (www.ourstorybridge.org) is the national charitable nonprofit organization whose mission is to serve as a resource and toolkit for OurStoryBridge Partner Projects to preserve and circulate local audio stories past and present through accessible online media; to promote, build and assist with the deployment of these resources in communities across geographic, cultural, socioeconomic, racial and organizational strata; and to help strengthen these communities through sharing of their stories, including preserving the stories of older generations before they are lost and encouraging younger generations to become engaged community members.