Our Stories/Nuestras Historias: Intergenerational Storytelling in Codman Square

Students in Northeastern University (NU) first-year and advanced writing courses will partner with older adults at LBFE Boston partner site Operation P.E.A.C.E.’s Dorchester Senior Center to record, produce and archive oral histories. This will dovetail with LBFE Boston and Operation P.E.A.C.E’s missions to provide social connection and enrichment programs for BIPOC-identifying older adults in under-resourced communities. All participants will share in the work of shaping narratives and technical production. Older adults will have new opportunities to share their knowledge and grow their digital literacy, and university students will learn the principles and practices of ethical, inclusive storytelling and digital production. Recorded histories may be archived publicly and/or shared as part of the storytellers’ legacies to their circles of care.

Project Community Partner

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Cynthia Wilkerson

Program Design, Little Brothers - Friends of the Elderly

Since joining LBFE Boston in 2015, Cynthia has led the organization’s program design and evaluation efforts as well as its embrace of intergenerational engagement. She earned a Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School and a Nonprofit Management and Leadership Certificate from Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, and has more than 15 years of program management experience. Her board memberships include the Massachusetts Healthy Aging Collaborative’s Executive Committee, Northeastern University Office of City and Community Engagement’s Community Advisory Board, and the Steering Committee for OutstandingLife (A Virtual Community for LGBTQ+ Older Adults). In her free time, Cynthia is an avid movie- and museumgoer.

Project College Instructor

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Emily Avery-Miller

Associate Teaching Professor, English Department, Northeastern University

Emily Avery-Miller is an Associate Teaching Professor, Northeastern University’s English Department, where she teaches first-year writing and interdisciplinary advanced writing courses. She has taught community-engaged service learning courses for eight years, partnering with organizations that serve immigrants and young people through intergenerational mentoring and tutoring programs. In her home community, Watertown, she serves on the boards of Friends of Project Literacy and the local cooperative preschool. Her essays and criticism have appeared in WBUR’s Artery and Art New England magazine.