The Telling Project Workshop
– A New Approach to Serving SPC’s Student Veterans
Date – Time: April 22, 2016 – 10:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Location: The Conference Center, SPC Seminole Campus
Professional Development: Three hours of credit will be earned
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER. Lunch: To be provided.
SPC’s Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions and Veterans Services, in conjunction with the National Telling Project Institute and the Florida Humanities Council, will present a unique workshop to enhance the college experience for SPC’s student veterans.
Goal: Deepen understanding by SPC faculty and staff of the military experience, easing student veterans’ transition back into civilian society and enhancing their prospects for academic success leading to productive employment in the career of their choice.
Who should attend: Faculty, Instruction and Academic Programs, Career and Student Services staff are urged to participate and all SPC employees are welcome.
With 1,400 veteran students using GI benefits enrolled during the Fall 2015 semester and almost 2,300 veteran students assisted, registered and certified during the full 2014-15 academic year, this workshop is designed to strengthen relationships between veterans and the college employees who serve them.
Background: The Telling Project is a national initiative that seeks to connect veterans and the public through the power of theater. It works with a team of six to seven veterans to present dramatic performances from their personal experiences in military service and their re-entry into civilian life. By crafting, rehearsing and performing their own narratives in their own words, this troupe of veterans creates an artistic and therapeutic work that enables them to express on stage what is often challenging to address in everyday life.
Since a very low percentage of the faculty and staff has actual military experience, and even fewer have served in recent wars, it is likely that not many truly understand what war is like – or how it impacts the lives of those who serve, especially when re-entering civilian life. This training offers SPC employees an opportunity to broaden such understanding among key personnel who serve our veteran students.
To watch a video of Telling: Tampa Bay, visit this link on the Florida Humanities Council website.
About the workshop: Participants will first view a documentary of the creation of the Telling: Tampa Bay production that was staged in Tampa Bay during spring of 2015. It includes video of the stage production, initial interviews of the participating actor-veterans and conversations among the veterans as the production was developed. Several of these veterans will attend the training to offer a talk-back forum following the showing of the documentary. Director of the Tampa Bay production will also share her insights from this intimate process of developing a stage production.
After a short break participants will delve into pertinent questions in facilitated breakout conversations. These discussions are aimed at broadening public understanding of the military experience and its impact on veterans’ lives, even long after they leave military service. Greater understanding of that impact is crucial to easing veterans’ transitions to civilian society.
Each breakout group will have the benefit of a student veteran, a Veteran Services Specialist or an employee veteran participating in the conversation. The actor-veterans will rove among the groups to add their experiences and perspectives to the discussions.