Centering the Voices of Those Impacted
One of Deep Center’s core values is narrative change, which means we center the voices, stories and experiences of those who are often left out of our the dominant stories and experiences in our culture. One of the most powerful tools for narrative change is media.
We are always actively encouraging reporters and the media to reach out to us for stories, especially those told by our youth, front-line staff and the adults we work with. But over the years, we have also seen how even well-intentioned reporters have framed the youth and adults we work with from a deficit-lens, as broken, or being saved. With love, we firmly reject those one-dimensional stories, and instead, have developed a set of best practices we encourage reporters, media members and any storyteller, to consider when working with and interviewing our community.
With this, we have created the Deep Center Guide to Person-First Reporting. This guide seeks to encourage those talking with our community to adopt best practices and ways of talking about the nuance of our lives in a way that centers the dignity of those involved and recognizes the enormous challenges we face.
To access the Deep Center Guide to Person-First reporting, click HERE.
To request an interview with any of our staff, board, or youth and adults, contact coco@deepcenter.org