Two of our alumni attended the Department of Youth and Community Development’s “A Chapter in My Life” workshop series. The workshop series were designed to take the diverse experiences of its participants, both good and bad, and transform them into a compelling and sequential narrative – to be formatted into quaint chapter books.
The workshop
series spanned for two months. Our fathers and other participants received
lectures from workshop facilitators, two featured authors and prominent guests.
As each lecture ended, the fathers would take what they learned and begin
drawing upon their experiences for supporting details in their stories. Our two
fathers used paralleling storyline structure: they wrote about their past
experiences, their enrollment at UpNext, lessons learned in UpNext, and
summarized their stories with the changes they made post-UpNext.Once the “Chapter of My Life” workshop series concluded, a small completion ceremony was held on June 18th. Our fathers attended, and one father brought his daughter along. They received several books and other useful gifts for their hard work. These workshops were an enriching way for our dads to reflect on past experiences to better appreciate the powerful, and positive, transformations they have underwent
