Sofa Stories: OUTside

Sofa Stories: OUTside builds on the success of the first Sofa Stories Detroit project - a community arts project using live theatre & digital media to amplify the stories of young Detroiters who have experienced homelessness or housing insecurity and may have resorted to couch surfing as a means to survive. 

The next phase of this project is twofold. Funds raised during this campaign will allow the project team to cover the costs of remounting in-person performances at various community events in Detroit during the summer and help promote a short-film series featuring six original monologues created during the first phase of the project in 2020/2021. At the same time, the project team will begin the process of generating new material focusing on the stories of LGBTQIA youth with lived experiences of homelessness or housing insecurity, and will utilize in-person and digital performance opportunities to engage new audiences in, and outside of Detroit.

This phase of the project will create paid opportunities for young people with lived experiences of homelessness or housing insecurity and various opportunities for local artists committed to using their art form for social change. The project team will lead a series of outreach workshops with various community organizations to help identify young people who would like to participate in the project. These young people will then be matched with a Detroit-based writer to help craft an original monologue or performance piece. These pieces will then be incorporated into a future performance/film phase, allowing the project to reach new audiences and continue a larger conversation on how to help end youth homelessness in the city of Detroit. 

In order to continue this important work, we need to:
 

• Raise $9000 for youth participants, artists & creative team fees and the cost of supplies/materials, and fees associated with remounting live performances during the summer of 2022.
• Provide outreach workshops with various Detroit-based organizations serving LGBTQIA youth experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity, and compensate any young person who lends their time and expertise to this project.
• Match identified young people with local artists/writers and begin the process of generating new material that will be used in a future performance/film series.

The first phase of Sofa Stories Detroit began with a goal to amplify the stories of young Detroiters who have experienced homelessness or housing insecurity and bring attention to this often-invisible crisis. While developing material for the first phase of performances and films and engaging in conversations with audiences and community members, the project team was reminded of how LGBTQIA youth are much more likely to experience homelessness and decided to dedicate future efforts to explore this in greater detail.

According to True Colors United, LGBTQ youth have a 120% higher risk of experiencing homelessness. As the Sofa Stories team continues to create arts programming for young people with lived experiences of homelessness to share their stories, we feel it is necessary to center the experiences of LGBTQIA youth in this work. The project will create opportunities for young people to share their own stories or create a fictionalized version of their story in whatever way they choose, and ultimately use the power of storytelling to support and empower this population and advocate for necessary change.