Through our own extensive experience in various organizations and DC based justice movement efforts we know there is a gap between the level of work that's necessary to build power to create long-lasting change and the capacity that groups and organizations have to move their work forward in ways that are sustainable and for the long-term. We are here to support groups in ways that center, engage, and build power with the people most impacted by systemic violence.
Gracias a nuestra amplia experiencia en diversas organizaciones y movimientos por la justicia en Washington D. C., sabemos que existe un hueco entre el nivel de trabajo necesario para fortalecer el poder y generar un cambio duradero y la capacidad de los grupos y organizaciones para impulsar su trabajo de forma sostenible y a largo plazo. Estamos aquí para apoyar a grupos que centran, interactúan y estan creando poder con las personas más afectadas por la violencia sistémica.
Our Founding Story— Nuestra historia
Before founding Seeding Stories/Sembrando Historias, we worked side by side as organizers to launch a coalition dedicated to overhauling D.C.’s crisis response system. Together, we co-developed listening sessions with impacted residents, direct service providers, organizers, policy advocates, and other community leaders; convened and facilitated regular strategy sessions; co-created public events to elevate the coalition’s work; and supported directly impacted community members in learning how to tell their stories powerfully. Through this experience, we witnessed firsthand how narrative building and healing work are too often treated as an afterthought in advocacy spaces—yet they are essential to building power. This realization became the seed for our collaborative. Since forming, we have heard consistently from partners that this organizing praxis is not only needed but vital in this moment of profound political challenge.
Antes de fundar Seeding Stories/Sembrando Historias, trabajamos juntas como organizadoras comunitarias para lanzar una coalición dedicada a la transformación del sistema de respuesta a crisis de D.C. Juntas, codesarrollamos sesiones de escucha con residentes afectados, proveedores de servicios directos, organizadores comunitarios, promotores de políticas y otros líderes comunitarios; convocamos y facilitamos sesiones estratégicas periódicas; cocreamos eventos públicos para impulsar el trabajo de la coalición; y apoyamos a los miembros de la comunidad directamente afectados para que aprendieran a contar sus historias con fuerza. A través de esta experiencia, presenciamos de primera mano cómo la construcción de narrativas y el trabajo de sanación frecuentemente se relegan en los espacios de incidencia política, a pesar de ser esenciales para construir poder. Esta realización se convirtió en la semilla de nuestra colaboración. Desde su formación, hemos escuchado constantemente de nuestros socios que esta práctica organizativa no solo es necesaria, sino vital en este momento de profundos desafíos políticos.
Meet Natacia
Hi, I am Natacia (they/them), co-founder of Seeding Stories / Sembrando Historias. I’m a community organizer whose organizing praxis is rooted in Black and queer liberation. I have 20+ years of experience in activism, organizing, mutual aid and storytelling. Storytelling, specifically, is at the root of all things - how we connect with one another and how we also better understand ourselves. Much of my organizing experience has been in Washington, D.C. but with some organizing experience in Boston, New York and New Orleans. As someone who lives within many intersections - as a Black femme, a nonbinary person, and someone who comes from a family of Black migrants of the global majority as well as a lineage of Black Americans from the South - I believe that collective struggle is the most important framework for moving through this world.
Meet Veronica
Hi, I’m Veronica (she/her), co-founder of Seeding Stories / Sembrando Historias. I’m a bilingual community organizer, a Mexican immigrant, facilitator, and a death worker. I have over a decade of experience power and community building around housing justice, immigrant justice, and criminal legal system reform, as well as trauma-informed death and grief work, and yoga education. I’m also a long time writer and reader who believes that storytelling is a powerful way to make meaning in ways that connect us to one another—it allows us to reclaim our histories, harness our power, vision new worlds and possibilities, and understand others’ experiences. All my work as an organizer, death worker, and direct service provider has included various levels of storytelling–and all the organizing campaigns I’ve supported have all included storytelling in the form of listening sessions, fellowships, and media creation from a popular education approach that has centered and been informed by the experiences of the most impacted people of systemic violence.