project leader
Bobby T
location
176 Timberlane Drive
(Lorain County, Ohio)
latest update rss
No updates yet.

the project

“Humans of Lorain County” Series Creates a Living Scrapbook of Resident Stories

Stories have the power to unite us all in our common humanity. 

When I started the “Humans of Lorain County” Facebook page, I had an idea what I wanted to do, but I had no idea what to expect. The basic framework is simple: one picture, one person, one story, told every week. Telling the story of a real person can transform the oversized into human-scale. An actual person’s experience can take an abstract issue, a seemingly insurmountable obstacle, or a far-distant conflict and convert it into something understandable and relatable. Stories like these create and strengthen relationships, bolster small businesses, attract and retain talent and investment, and cultivate a sense of pride in their communities if consistently told over time.

the steps

My wife and I are committed to sharing one story per week that highlights a local member of our community and their story. Although the process is simple, this kind of storytelling isn’t easy work. But our community is worth it. We are willing to take up the commitment needed to tell the stories of the people who have risked, sacrificed, and overcome to create better places for us to live.

why we're doing it

We launched Humans of Lorain County as a personal project with limited resources, but after only a few posts, realized it has the potential to spotlight humanity. My hope is that this sort of breaks down barriers. COVID hit and everyone sort of isolated themselves, but even before that I don’t know if, as a community, we really were neighborly. My hope is we become more neighborly. More communal. Not so negative. Not feel so alone.” 

This campaign reflects the county's heart and its melting pot of cultures. Through images and his subjects' own stories, Humans of Lorain County will communicate not just vulnerability to fear, sadness, and anger but also resilience, strength, hope, tolerance, and perseverance. We look at Humans of Lorain County as our “stone soup” after the popular African folklore of a community bringing together what they have to feed everybody. We welcome submissions of 500 word stories and/or interview requests at: HumansofLorainCounty@gmail.com

Our project is based on the success of the Humans of New York (HONY) campaign.

The HONY site, launched in 2010 by photographer Brandon Stanton, was intended as a photography project to depict 10,000 New Yorkers on the street. Eventually it morphed into a blog, including quotes and eventually short vignettes of their lives. It has now grown to 20 million followers on social media and has spawned two bestselling books.

budget

Final budget

11/10/2023

Funds will be applied to a new laptop and software to support the continuation of the Humans of Lorain County Facebook page and storytelling project.

TOTAL RAISED = $380.00
ioby Fiscal Sponsorship Fee (5%) $19.00
ioby Donation Processing Fee (3%) $5.70
TOTAL TO DISBURSE= $355.30

Original budget



TOTAL PROJECT FUNDING NEEDED $3,500
ioby Fiscal Sponsorship Fee (5%) $190
ioby Donation Processing Fee (3%)
(Donation processing fee does not apply to match funding.)
$114
TOTAL TO RAISE= $3,804

Donation processing fees apply to donations only. 100% of match funding goes to projects. Please note, fees are estimated here and final numbers may change based on the final amount raised and amount of match funding applied to this campaign.

We are requesting the following support:

$599.00 Canon EOS Rebel t7 DSLR Camera with lenses. Digital camera to capture high-quality photos of the area residents.

$38.53 – Domain name registration for three-years. This will allow us to create a Humans of Lorain County website.

$1,999.00 – Dell 15.6”XPS 15 Laptop. This will be used to edit photographs and recorded audio from interviews and podcasts. The computer will be used to provide portability for digital capturing and digital transcription of audio.

$500.00 – 100 t-shirts to promote “Humans of Lorain County”. Shirts will be provided to residents featured in the campaign. Additionally, t-shirts can be used as a fundraiser to support the campaign.

$363.47 – Taxes, shipping, and ioby.com platform fees associated with the campaign.

Total campaign goal = $3,500

updates

Sorry, but this project doesn't have any updates yet.

photos

This is where photos will go once we build flickr integration

donors

  • Cindy and Geoff Andrews
  • Invest Elyria
  • LeighAnn Arroyo 5th Ward Elyria City Advocate