Saint Louis Story Stitchers uses nonviolent collective action and creative youth development to create systemic social change.
Story Stitchers uses a collaborative model to create social justice art. Story Stitchers’ Studio is a living laboratory where youth lead and build the nonprofit organization alongside adult mentors.
Youth bring raw experiences and are supported by regionally and nationally recognized black artists and scholars who work alongside the young activists through collaborative learning experiences inviting dialogue and generating raw, authentic works of art. Story Stitchers use music, spoken word, photography, videography, and dialogue to highlight stories related to trauma such as gun violence, life transitions, and mental health. The work promotes mutual respect for diverse backgrounds and lived experiences, and fosters understanding across the racial, socioeconomic, and age divisions of our region.
Based in the City of St. Louis, Missouri and incorporated in 2014, Story Stitchers places black youth at the center of the work in identifying topics for exploration and guiding methods for community engagement. Gun violence is a pressing public health crisis that consumes the attention of the engaged youth; artistic expression helps youth work through the pain and loss they experience. Thirty in-person public presentations each year plus 50 podcast, music and video publications aid the community with important health and safety messages from its youth leaders.
The goal of Story Stitchers is to promote a better educated, more peaceful, and more caring region through storytelling.
We are driven by the guiding principles that: artists can be catalysts for social change, youth are the future of humanity, and active learning through collaborative experiences promotes thoughtful creativity.
To achieve these goals, Saint Louis Story Stitchers engages youth in educational activities including research, writing, collaborative learning with peers and adults, public speaking, presentation and discussion, writing, recording and editing, and various business skills related to building a nonprofit. These activities also provided opportunities to engage with the public in community building through art exhibitions, concerts and performances, and media interviews.
The Center
Since opening our doors in 2023, the Story Stitchers Center has grown into a vibrant, welcoming hub designed to nurture creativity, learning, and youth leadership. The 4,550 sq. ft. center located at the Kranzberg Arts Foundation’s 3701 Grandel Square features a mix of large and small learning spaces, workshops, and studios equipped with state-of-the-art technology to support artistic exploration, collaboration, rehearsals, performances, and community gatherings.
Our performance and practice spaces host music sessions, hip-hop dance, spoken word, open mics, film screenings, and youth-led discussions. The recording studio enables high-quality music and podcast production, while the class room supports video and digital media projects. True to our mission, the entire space was shaped with direct input from youth, ensuring that the environment reflects their needs, creativity, and evolving visions.
To strengthen our partnerships and serve the whole youth experience, the Center includes a resource area where young people can connect with partner organizations for referrals, behavioral health support, and additional community resources.
Through our commitment to excellence in the arts, youth leadership, and community service, Story Stitchers continues to build a nationally recognized program rooted in evidence-based practices for youth development and violence prevention.
Story Stitchers fills a large gap in St. Louis’s youth service programs for at-risk minority youth in late adolescence transitioning to adulthood. Youth in the program go through significant trials, self-reporting depression, assault, robbery, transient living, hunger, anxiety, sexual abuse, domestic violence, grief from loss of loved ones due to violence or natural causes all of which may cause trauma and toxic levels of stress, adversely effecting healthy brain development and healthy bodies. The program engages 120 youth participants per year, 50% of whom are male and 100% of whom are people of color, 98% black.
“Boys and men of color are at higher risk of trauma due to multiple factors including higher rates of incarceration and more exposure to violence” (OJP Diagnostic Center).
Through its unique program focused on excellence in the arts, youth leadership, and outreach through community service, Story Stitchers is building a program that also effectively represents evidence-based practices in youth violence prevention.
These practices include:
- Spaces that strengthen social relationships
- Programs that strengthen youth skills
- Connecting youth to caring, culturally relevant adult mentors and activities
- Creating protective community environments
- Stability and trust
- Ownership over the program
- Sense of extended family
- Collaborations with community partners and local organizations
- Leadership opportunities
“The best single antidote for trauma and toxic stress is relationships. Healthy, consistent, confirming relationships promote healthy brain development, social skills and resiliency.”
Community Advisory Board Presentation: Vulnerable Children in the St. Louis Area Toxic Stress and Health, Susan Fliesher RN, DNP, 2/2/2017
Reducing likelihood of youth involvement in criminal activity: Story Stitchers activities build and strengthen youth leadership, peer-to-peer education, adult-youth mentoring, youth resiliency and pro-social behaviors such as civic responsibility.
Story Stitchers is a member organization of the St. Louis Area Violence Prevention Commission (STLVPC). STLVPC is a regional, cross-sector collaboration working to reduce violence crime in the region by promoting and advocating for policies that support a well-resourced support system for individuals and families most at risk of violence crime. Story Stitchers programs meet their recommendations for preventing gun violence as presented to members of the Public Safety Committee of the Board of Alderman by the STLVPC on September 17, 2019:
- “Increases the availability and accessibility of safe spaces and positive connections for youth” – Story Stitchers expands space, hours, recruitment and programs.
- “Supports and enhances neighborhood and community-based organizations to re-build social cohesion” – Story Stitchers provides 35 public community outreach activities each year
- “Advocates for better coordination of city, nonprofit, university and volunteer efforts to improve neighborhood conditions” – Story Stitchers will build-out community partnerships and work towards stronger collaborative efforts and sustainable infrastructure
- “Fosters positive interactions between community and law enforcement, courts, etc.” – Story Stitchers will utilize youth-led podcasts and some of the guests would be police or judges. Story Stitchers has a relationship with the City of St. Louis Juvenile Detention Center and will request topics of interest to detained youth for some of the podcasts and encourage them to join us after they are released. Youth can bring the finished podcasts to the Center and add discussions with detained youth, furthering their interest level in Story Stitchers programs.
- Implements a sustainability framework for youth violence prevention: “Leadership is a vital component for sustainable outcomes and real impact” – Story Stitchers is building a coalition of youth leaders within the target area and giving them a platform from which they can be heard by peers.
Youth involved in the program rarely have negative involvement with law enforcement. They build friendships, a sense of belonging, a safety net and learn to think of themselves as leaders in the community.
Story Stitchers Bus Shelter Mural Project.