Teaching Artist

Job Description: Teaching Artist

Seeking Trusted Community Peers to facilitate storytelling workshops for Trigger: Violence Intervention and Prevention.

Trigger Violence Intervention and Prevention (VIP) is a gun violence intervention program based on the First Person Arts 60-minute documentary film Trigger. The program consists of six 90-minute workshops that teach students to tell their stories with impact and authenticity. The program gives students an opportunity to share their reactions and experiences with gun violence. Telling their own stories helps the students externalize trauma and opens a path to healing. We see the impact of personal stories through our long history of success with our Engaging Men of Color programs.

Each 6-week series will end in a StorySlam storytelling stage performance where students will share their truths.This intervention will help at-risk young people in schools address trauma from, and the causes of, gun violence. Sessions will be supported by in-room behavioral health counselors supplied by our partner, Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility (DBHIDS). Each teaching artist will be paired with an assistant teaching artist.

Location:Targeted Schools throughout Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Salary: $50/hour
Employment type: Occasional/part-time contract. Approximately 12 hours per week Job function: Teaching artist
Duration: 6 week sessions, beginning in January 2024.
Areas of focus: Community and Capacity Building through the Arts

Responsibilities:

●  Lead one or more series of 6 weekly workshops of 8 to 12 students held during the school day at each school.

●  Attend train the trainer program before workshop begins.

●  Teach the fundamentals of storytelling, using a leader’s guide and exercises that will be

provided.

●  Guide students to develop practicing the physical, vocal and improvisational skills to

communicate dynamically as performers,

●  Provide input at regular intervals regarding methodologies that elicit conversations.

●  GIve feedback to drafts/ rehearsals of stories to sharpen students’ presentation skills.

●  Use techniques that break down barriers to create a safe space for authentic sharing of

experience.

●  Collaborate with Behavioral Health counselors to debrief students’ reactions to film excerpts

●  Collaborate with Lead Facilitator, Director of Applied Storytelling and colleagues to ensure sessions are staying on track to achieve project goals.

Required Skills

●  Ability to facilitate group learning

●  Ability to create a safe space for adolescents to tell their true stories.

●  Ability to give positive and constructive feedback to students.

●  Passion for storytelling in all forms including: film, live event, podcasts

●  Collaborative and dedicated team member.

●  Open to support the lived experiences of others

●  Must be able to pass FBI and state background check

Preferred Experience

●  Experience in social impact activities within the target communities.

●  Experience working with adolescent populations (strongly preferred)

●  Experience with narrative arts (i.e., theater, storytelling, poetry slams)

●  Experience leading groups

●  Experience with student populations in schools impacted by gun violence.

About First Person Arts

Since 2001 FPA has put the spotlight on true personal stories, on the stage, the page and the screen. We have helped people transform the drama of real life into memoir and documentary art. We reach every zip code in Philly. We reflect the demographics of the City of Philadelphia within approximately 10 percentage points of the 2019 Philadelphia Census.

Our programming amplifies true, personal stories, especially those of females and persons of color, around the pressing issues of our time, while connecting, entertaining, and informing.

Our trauma-informed, evidence-based work with DBHIDS EMOC program is the springboard for this program.