Voices UnBroken is a Bronx-based non-profit organization dedicated to providing under-heard members of the community, primarily youth ages 14-21, with the tools and opportunity for creative self-expression. Through high quality creative writing workshops in group homes, residential treatment facilities jails, juvenile detention centers and various other transitional and alternative settings, Voices UnBroken nurtures the inherent need in all people to tell their stories and be heard. IT is our belief that this telling of stories of dreams leads to individual and community growth.

Description and/or History:
Voices UnBroken was founded in the Bronx in 2000. The four main elements of Voices UnBroken: Voices Beyond Bars, Speaking Our Voices, Voices Ink, and The Voices Network not only work to formulate a community amongst people going through similar experiences and connect them with the broader community, but also strives towards the formulation of future goals. Voices Beyond Bars ventures into jails and juvenile detention facilities to provide creative writing workshops. By using one's own words to unravel the intricacies of deep emotions feeds the need of self-expression. Words not only can lighten the heart but also form strong communities that otherwise would not have existed. In the Speaking Our Voices program, facilitators host workshops in which creative writing helps bind together those people with similar experiences. This formation of a group through naked self proclamation provides a support for people who may feel solitary and secluded in their struggle. Voices Ink steps outside the walls of our workshops by connecting the general community to the ideas sparked by participants. Through the publications of journals, anthologies, newsletters, and our seasonal magazine, we take the emotions expressed by the participants to the rest of their peers. The interconnectedness of the everyday person with those in the workshops can only be felt if the thoughts communicated in the workshops become a part of the common dialogue. The Voices Network partners with this effort by having past workshop participants, teachers, writers, and various other artists train and conference with those currently in the program about future aspirations. Breaking down self and community made barriers that bar all people from explaining deep emotions limits all communities. Exchanging experiences and providing support for those who at times walk on faulty ground strengthens all. The most recent addition to Voices UnBroken is the Write Your Way Curriculum, which is a teaching guideline for those who want to become facilitators, teaching artists, educators simply more involved. We have begun chipping away at the perceived differences that blind people from self articulation and acceptance of others. Yet the need for free flowing flux of ideas is still blurred by man made obstructions.

Contact people:

Victoria Sammartino, Executive Director, (718) 292-3018, (email) Celeste Rivera, Program Director, (718) 292-3018, (email) Katie Esteves, Special Projects Manager, (718) 292-3018

Address:

370 East 149th Street, 2nd Floor Bronx, NY 10461 (See a map)

Directions:

Nearest Metro/Subway Stop: 2 & 5 to 149th and 3rd Ave,   Walk distance (in minutes): 1   Nearest Bus Stop: BX19, BX1, BX4, BX42 , 1 minute walk