𝗕𝗨𝗜𝗟𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗔 𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗟𝗗 𝗢𝗙 𝗙𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗟𝗘𝗦𝗦 𝗦𝗧𝗢𝗥𝗬𝗦𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗚™
CREATING REAL BELONGING BY LEARNING TO SHARE OUR STORIES
StoryScoping™
StoryShaping™
StorySharing™
BY THE END OF 2024
3,000+
Participants will have completed our in person workshop
A Letter From Our Founders
The insights that built The Sunday Afternoon Project came from our lived experience as queer men looking for, and finding, a place where we belonged, where we could be and be treated as a family, and the subsequent eye-opening realization that in finding it, we isolated ourselves from the reality we were running from.
Many wonderful organizations work towards supporting the queer community. We are flipping that on it's head: to share what the modern queer community has learned about navigating a hostile world with the world at large: the dynamics of identity, of shared safe spaces, of both harmful and edifying narrative constructs, of privilege and how it can be wielded for good.
In this season of hope and generosity, we reach out to you for support. Your contributions will help us continue our work, creating a world where everyone, irrespective of their background, finds a place to belong and someone to share their story with
OUR MISSION
To empower individuals, communities, and organizations to build a world of belonging by developing and sharing the tools to create, around themselves, safe spaces:
spaces of FEARLESS STORYTELLING™.
WE BELIEVE that the things we share with the world tell the story of who we are, and that by openly, fearlessly sharing our stories we create the safe spaces for others to share theirs.
WE CALL THIS STORYSHARING™
SHARING OUR STORIES IS AN ACT OF GENEROSITY.
AND IT'S CONTAGIOUS!
OUR THESIS
Early EXPERIENCES, PERCEPTIONS or WITNESSING of exclusion or discrimination influence our pursuits in adulthood, as we either self-select out of the things we're not supposed nor expected to aspire to, our handicap ourselves by code-switching in order to better fit in.
WE LEARN not to go where we are NOT WANTED.
WE LEARN to hide the struggles NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR ABOUT.
WE LEARN to wear a mask in order to BELONG.
We must build a world that welcomes us all. And we are!
But just as importantly, we need to learn to TAKE OUR PLACE IN THAT WORLD.
OUR METHODOLOGY
We approach this from two opposing perspectives:
FROM THE TOP DOWN: from the people in positions of privilege, who have the power of opening spaces for this to happen.
FROM THE BOTTOM UP: from the people in positions of vulnerability, who need the skills to unburden themselves of the false beliefs that keeps them from claiming their rightful place.
Our methodology, developed as much from our founder's life experiences as recent Hispanic immigrants as from primary and secondary research, is called STORYSHARING™.
STORYSHARING™ IS A PROCESS
A PROCESS that precedes what we traditionally understand as Storytelling: while storytelling is about sharing a fully built narrative with an mostly passive audience, Storysharing™ is about how the personal narrative is co-created with input from the groups we belong to, with the goal of expanding what the individual considers a Safe Space.
It consists of three distinct phases:
STORYSCOPING™
When we look inside for what we have
to share, and establish our own boundaries for it.
STORYSHAPING™
SHAPING STORIES to share works best as
a collaborative act, in an environment of trust, where mistakes are celebrated as opportunities for growth.
STORYSHARING™
A COLLABORATIVE and dynamic process
where those involved share the story, leading to evolutions of participants' relationships.
HELP SUPPORT STORYSHARING™