Call for Stories of Resistance and Community in MN Adult Education

Why are we gathering stories?

As our colleagues process our experiences of Operation Metro Surge and what it meant for our communities, we at ATLAS want to create a space for adult educators and learners to share their stories. Telling stories is an important way to document history and can be helpful in processing our experiences. The ATLAS team has been promoting and expanding resources for healing-centered learning spaces, and we believe this project moves these efforts forward.

Stories submitted to this collection do not have to be about Operation Metro Surge; they can be about any example of resistance or community. However, we recognize that Operation Metro Surge was a major event in our collective experience this past year and birthed this idea. Many organizations are doing similar projects right now, and did so after the murder of George Floyd (another major collective event in our community). We want to make sure our adult education community participates in this movement of documentation.

What will happen to the collected stories?

We will curate the collection to be housed on the ATLAS website and MN Adult Education Professional Development YouTube channel. We hope to also have a printed version in time for distribution at the Language & Literacy Institute in January 2027. We’ll keep you updated! We also hope that then the stories can be used for additional adult education literacy activities. We love to promote using authentic and students’ texts in the classroom!

Who can send in stories?

Anyone associated with adult education: learners, volunteers, teachers, staff, administrators, and anyone else in our community!

What should I write about?

ATLAS and #IamABE partnered to create new lessons on this topic through the Teaching for Justice project. Check out the collection called Symbols of Resistance, with leveled lesson plans from Beginning Literacy to GED. These lessons can be a great springboard for instructors to use with learners to submit their final “Stories of Resistance and Community” product.

Possible general prompts:

1. Describe a time when you or your community came together to resist an injustice (something that was hurting your community).
2. Describe a time when you saw your neighbors helping each other.
3. Share a memory about what happened to you or your family during Operation Metro Surge.

How do I submit my story?

• Send in a Google Doc, Word, or paste your story into an email and send it to [email protected]
• Include: your name (or you can give only a first name, or simply write Anonymous), your adult education program, and teacher’s name (if you have one).
  • As you feel comfortable, please also include the city you live in, your age, and what country you are from.
• Submission notes:
  • Written submissions should not exceed 500 words and can be prose or poetry. The submission can even be as short as a sentence.
  • Video submissions (please do not exceed 3 min, ideally MP4 format).
  • Artwork
  • NOTE: We are open to submissions in languages other than English. (We would be grateful for teacher or program assistance with languages we are not familiar with for vetting and editing.)
  • Please don’t worry about “perfect” English. Write in your voice, and feel free to use words from your languages.

Please be aware that all submissions will be posted on our website and/or YouTube channel. By nature of submitting, you are agreeing to release your writing/video/artwork and whatever name you list as OK to associate with your work.

When is the deadline?

Please submit by November 1, 2026.

Any questions?

Email Cydnee Sanders at [email protected].