The Laura (Riding) Jackson Foundation has partnered with the Gifford Historical Museum and Cultural Center to help teens learn the process of interviewing members of the community and documenting their stories. Teens Listen: An Oral History Project is a project that engages students in our community in an experience that will develop skills of interviewing and listening by recording the significant views adults have about living in this community.

We have enlisted teacher mentors in each high school to help us recruit, train, and schedule our young student interviewers. We’ll take students through the process of learning how to interview, how to document those interviews and how to reflect on what they learn in the process.

Students will produce a video of their recorded interview, which will be built into a local documentary film that shares the stories we collect, as well as written reflections, which will be published together in a physical book.

In addition to continue to interview Gifford Pioneers and women in the C-suite, we plan to add veterans, “river folk,” and others to our growing list of storytellers.

To be eligible, students must:

  • Be in 9-12th grade
  • Reside in or attend school in Indian River County

Would you like to be a part of Teens Listen?

December First Friday Gallery Stroll

December First Friday Gallery Stroll

Join us tonight! But if you miss it, don’t worry, just come on in to the Writing Center and buy a copy OR buy it online in our store. Phenomenal Women: An Anthology of Selected Poems (65 pages, 2023) is…

Take a Poetry Walk

Take a Poetry Walk

Take a peaceful stroll through our garden and contemplate the beauty of both nature and poetry. This new installation in our garden showcases the poems of Billy Collins, the featured poet at our 30th anniversary events in November 2023, proceeds…

Thank you Billy Collins Event Sponsors!

Thank you Billy Collins Event Sponsors!

And thank you as well to ABC Printing for sponsoring the printed programs at both events!

The "From Our Own" gallery, a small display inside the foundation's writing office.

LRJF Members Have Many Talents

We now have a devoted wall in the Writing Center for displaying works of visual art by our members. The space is called the “From Our Own” Gallery. A volunteer committee has been named and it will consider applications from…