In the wake of 9/11, Dr. Rick Stevenson created The 5000 Days Project, a longitudinal documentary program consisting of annual interviews with kids as they grow up.  Applying a new form of documentary interviewing called the StoryQ Method, Dr. Stevenson sought to help kids use their own stories to better understand and process themselves and the world around them.  Over the first decade of the project, it grew to involve thousands of kids across six continents.  

Fast forward to 2011, Dr. Jennifer Stuber lost her husband, Matt Adler, to suicide leaving behind two small children, Jake and Zoe.  Dr. Stuber went on to co-found Forefront Suicide Prevention at the University of Washington, which has become one of the leading suicide prevention programs in the country.  In 2011, Dr. Stuber met Dr. Stevenson and her children joined The 5000 Days Project.

When the pandemic began, Dr. Stuber realized youth would likely need more engagement and support to get them through challenging times. She worried about an increase in youth mental health challenges and suicidal behavior stemming from increased isolation, delayed dreams, and missed milestones. She approached Dr. Stevenson with the idea of scaling his StoryQ Method of verbal journaling to help students to process their complex feelings related to the pandemic and Black Lives Matter. Together they created the first version of THIS IS ME called Student Voices. Implementation of  Student Voices and the creation of the web application to support it was funded by the Mark Torrance Foundation. 

Evidence of the program’s success can be found in the video summary of the students’ work in Student Voices:

The personal narrative-based approach of the program is engaging to students. This format presents an opportunity to craft a social and emotional learning (SEL) program that is directed by the student’s voice.

With support from the Washington State Department of Health and the Matt Adler Fund, our bold goal in the 2021-2022 school year is to lay the foundation for a a robust, upstream, SEL program that builds reflection, connection and protection. 

In the summer of 2021, we drilled down on the questions asked in the verbal journaling interviews, launched a new website and developed the complementary curriculum. The web app was also overhauled so the questions could be asked by peers from diverse cultures and languages, a recommendation from a student in the program. 

We developed a complimentary curriculum drawing from students’ insights from the verbal journaling exercises to build self-awareness, self-management, and self-efficacy.