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ABOUT THE CENTER
Together we’re turning pain into
possibility
possibility
possibility
possibility
At Center for Story & Witness (formerly The Voices and Faces Project) our mission is to cultivate and share stories that bear witness to gender-based violence and other social injustices in order to change minds, hearts, and public policies.
Through our testimonial writing workshops, our narrative advocacy trainings, and our performances, publications and campaigns, we seek to create measurable social change through the power of narrative. For 16 years, we have been awarded the America’s Best Charities Seal of Excellence, a designation given to organizations that meet the highest standards of public accountability and program/cost effectiveness.
In the last decade, a growing awareness of the role that stories of witness play in social justice movements has taken hold in the NGO and non-profit space. The world now understands, in ways that it perhaps did not a decade or so ago, that stories of lived experience matter.
Testimony creates the space for imagining injustice, so that the world can better understand the effects of violence, marginalization, oppression, and dislocation on victims, families, and communities. A well-told story – a strategically-told story – calls the world not only to compassion but to social action. And action is what our work at Center for Story & Witness is all about.
We believe stories of witness aren’t just found. They need to be cultivated.
Those who seek to share their often painful, deeply personal stories need to be encouraged, listened to, developed, and supported if their voices are to have an enduring effect in the public square.
History’s most effective agents of change have often been its most artful, strategic storytellers. These writers and witnesses think carefully about language, word choice, outcomes, and audience. Martin Luther King Jr., Primo Levi, Adrienne Rich, Joy Harjo, James Baldwin, and Tracy K. Smith, among others, have much to teach us about how we use testimony and personal story to create social change. At Center for Story & Witness, we believe in learning from history in order to change history one powerful, purposeful story at a time.
Meet the voices and faces that make our work possible
Anne K. Ream
Co-Founder, Chief Vision Officer, Workshop Facilitator
A writer, music critic, hot yoga devotee, and lifelong lover of dogs, Anne K. Ream has spent the past 20 years creating social spaces where the voices of gender-based violence survivors are heard.
R. Clifton Spargo
Co-Founder, Director of Writing Programs, Workshop Instructor
A novelist, short story writer, music and cultural critic, and rock ’n’ roll enthusiast, Clifton Spargo is an expert in testimony and ethics and a dedicated teacher of creative writing.
Jimmie Briggs
Principal, Racial & Social Justice, Workshop Facilitator
As a writer, activist, and community organizer, Jimmie Briggs challenges us to look closely at the connections among racial, social, and gender injustices.
Aimee Bravo
Managing Director
A trained yoga instructor and outdoor enthusiast, Aimee Bravo works to create an organizational culture that is creative, inclusive, healing, and kind.
Nobuko Nagaoka
Graphic Designer
One of the first survivors of sexual violence to share her story with Center for Story & Witness, and a visionary art director, Nobuko Nagaoka drives our visual communications.
Kali Casab
Digital Media Manager
A writer, digital activist, community organizer, and lover of all things mindfulness, Kali Casab believes that justice and healing should go hand in hand.
Janet Goldblatt Holmes
Workshop Outreach Coordinator
A trained dancer, educator, and practitioner of holistic healing, Janet Goldblatt Holmes is a tireless advocate in the fight to end violence against women.
Linda Kay Klein
Writing Workshop Partner & Mentor
A writer, activist, dedicated mother, and storyteller for social good, Linda is passionate about helping others reclaim themselves and their right to their own lives and choices.
Brenda Myers-Powell
Community Liaison, Human Trafficking Programming
A leading voice in the movement to end human trafficking, Brenda Myers-Powell advocates for programming that centers the voices of those who have been sexually exploited.
Caity-Shea Violette
Writing Workshop Mentor
A playwright, actress, and longtime advocate for those struggling with mental illnesses, Caity-Shea Violette is passionate about creating new work about women for the stage.
Tony Wittrock
Curator & Community Liaison, Music Programming
A multi-instrumentalist whose passion for music extends beyond boundaries and genres, Tony Wittrock believes that music is one of the most primal, powerful tools available to those fighting for justice.
Jennifer Mitchell
Brand Manager
A branding expert, devoted mother, lover of literature, and accomplished vegetarian cook, Jennifer Mitchell believes in bringing together activism and the communication arts to create change in the world.
Discover our testimonial writing workshops
See how we’re creating change
At Center for Story & Witness, inclusion isn't just a word. It's a way of being.
The fight for justice is by definition a fight to create an inclusive, diverse, and equitable society, one in which each of us has access to the resources necessary to live rich, full, and joyful lives. Our ability to create change is connected to our commitment to diversity, in the truest sense of that word.
All are welcome in our programs, and we are especially committed to centering those who have been historically silenced, violated, or marginalized. These groups include but are not limited to individuals from BIPOC communities; those impacted by economic injustice and income inequality; unhoused persons; those who are differently abled; refugees and migrants; currently or formerly incarcerated persons; those from oppressed religious communities; and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
2004
Writer Anne K. Ream and photographer Patricia Evans embark on a global journey documenting the stories of gender-based violence survivors, which becomes the book Lived Through This (Beacon Press).
2005
Seeking to bring these stories to a larger audience, Ream, Evans, and a collective of Chicago-based activists launch The Voices and Faces Project and its first-of-its-kind online survivor story archive; the organization becomes a registered nonprofit organization in 2006.
2007
We’re named one of America’s Best Charities by Independent Charities of America, a designation we’ve received every year since. We begin offering narrative advocacy trainings across the U.S. and Canada.
2011
In partnership with novelist R. Clifton Spargo, we pilot “The Stories We Tell,” a testimonial writing workshop for survivors of gender-based violence. Our founder and organization receive the National Sexual Violence Resource Center Visionary Voice Award at a Clinton Presidential Center ceremony.
2012
Through the support of Donner Canadian Foundation, we expand “The Stories We Tell” to Canada, also creating programming for Aboriginal women seeking to write about the crises of human trafficking and missing and disappeared women in the region.
2014
We head to Durban, South Africa, to bring an eight-day training to a community of gender-based violence survivors preparing to meet with leaders from the African National Congress and the Anglican Church.
2015
In partnership with the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center of Chicago, we pilot a testimonial writing program for court-involved girls; LEAP, our teen literary magazine, debuts the following year.
2016
Working in partnership with movement leaders, we launch the survivor story archive at World Without Exploitation, the national coalition to end human trafficking. “A Story Changes Everything,” the print edition of that archive, is published as part of a policymaker education effort in Washington, D.C. the following year.
2018
The theatrical adaptation of “Lived Through This” is developed in partnership with Chicago’s Piven Theatre. In partnership with RefuSHE in Nairobi, Kenya, we create “Writing a New Refugee Story,” a writing program for refugee girls from across the African continent.
2019
“Lived Through This” is performed at a United Nations Commission on the Status of Women side event. In partnership with journalist Jimmie Briggs, we pilot “Testimony and Transformation,” our writing workshop for formerly incarcerated persons, in Chicago.
2020
We launch “Louder Together,” a crowdsourced poetry project; our first video poem, “Imagining a World Without Exploitation,” debuts online under the direction of Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble member Anne Filmer.
2021
We partner with Justice for Migrant Women to create “Find the Right Words,” a six-part strategic storytelling training for migrant and rural essential workers. Our new office opens at Simmons Center for Global Chicago.
2023
Our organization and its founder receive Apne Aap’s prestigious Last Girl Award in NYC at an event hosted by Gloria Steinem. “Creating Change,” a workshop focused on ethical storytelling for educators and advocates, travels across the U.S. and Canada.
2024
After a multi-year strategic planning process, The Voices and Faces Project is reimagined, rebranded, and expanded as Center for Story & Witness. Let the next chapter begin!
Our partners, allies, and supporters
We’ve engaged with over 300 organizations and foundations. These are just a few of them.
Ackerman Institute for the Family
Amnesty International
Angel Band Project
Aperture Foundation and Gallery
Apne Aap International
Art Works for Change
Art Works Fund
Art Works Projects
Beacon Press
Bigmouth Communications
Brabson Family Foundation
Buffett Center for International & Comparative Studies at Northwestern University
Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking
Center for Justice & Reconciliation, Point Loma Nazarene University
Centre Pompadour
Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation
Chicago Community Trust
Chicago Cultural Center
Clinton Presidential Center
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women
Comer Family Foundation
Contextos
Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center Foundation
Crown Family Philanthropies
David Lynch Foundation
End Violence Against Women International
Ernestine’s Daughter
Freekind
Holthues Trust
Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center
Illinois Humanities Council
Illinois Prison Project
International Museum of Women
International Research and Exchanges Board
JCARES
Jewish Coalition Against Sex Trafficking
Jewish Women’s Foundation
Jimmy Carter Presidential Library & Museum
Justice for Migrant Women
Kinetic Worldwide (a WPP Company)
Lakshmi Foundation
Laura Bush Institute for Women’s Health at Texas Tech University
Leo Burnett Company (a Publicis Groupe Company)
Man Up Campaign
Manaaki Foundation
Nathan Cummings Foundation
National Center for Youth Law
National Council of Jewish Women
National Museum of Mexican Art
National Organization for Women
National Sexual Violence Resource Center
NoVo Foundation
Obama Foundation Scholars, University of Chicago
Posen Family Center for Human Rights, University of Chicago
Printers Row Literary Festival
RAINN (the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network)
RefuSHE
Rotary International
Sandler Family Foundation
Seal Press
Shriver Center on Povery Law
Simmons Center for Global Chicago
Skoll Foundation
Sojourner Peace Center
Soroptimist International (a United Nations NGO)
Southern Poverty Law Center
Surviving the Mic
Survivors of Torture International
Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, University of Southern California
Tearfund International
The Network
Thomson Reuters Foundation
United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
US Department of Health and Human Services
US Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice
US Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime
US Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women
US Department of State
US Marine Corps
US Navy
Victim Rights Law Center
VMLY&R (a WPP Company)
William H. Donner Foundation
Winnipeg Art Gallery
Wisconsin Humanities Council
Women’s Bar Association
World Without Exploitation
YMCA
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