Project Mission and History
The Mothers’ Living Stories Project (MLS) brings compassion, support in parenting, and dignity to mothers who have cancer by helping them record life stories and personal legacies for their children and loved ones. Initially focused on San Francisco Bay Area mothers living with cancer, Project methods are intended for widespread replication to serve the many families in which either parent is facing a life-threatening or chronic illness.
During its first five years (1995-2000) MLS developed, tested, and evaluated innovative methods and materials with a diverse group of mothers who were parenting children 18 and under. The primary method involves mothers’ stories, audiorecorded on an individual basis with the guidance of a trained Volunteer Listener or written in a facilitated MLS Writing Circle. Project participants were interviewed in depth about their experience of mothering through cancer and Volunteer Listeners were interviewed as part of the evaluation of our Listener training program.
Additionally MLS successfully piloted and spun off Mothering Through Cancer Support Groups at the Institute for Health and Healing, California Pacific Medical Center, and at Marin General Hospital. The Project published the first Parenting Through Cancer Resource Guide which has been available nationally through our web site (www.motherslivingstories.org). For parents and caregivers living at a distance, MLS offered telephone and e-mail consultation on recording living stories.
In November 2000 MLS initiated Phase Four: Consolidation and Planning for Expanded Access and began reviewing all that had been learned from the narratives, focus groups, writing circles, support groups, and Volunteer Listener training program with the intent of bringing those learnings to a larger community.
During this period the Project updated and revised its Volunteer Listener Training Program intended for health and human services agencies, professional and lay caregivers, and future community volunteers. As part of the Training Program and with the intention of offering inspiration and tools to future trainees, MLS prepared a Volunteer Listener Training Manual and a 50-minute educational video featuring the Volunteer Listeners. The video, created under the able leadership of Peabody-award winning producer, Paul Kaufman, has also been used for educational presentations about healing through listening and legacy. Additionally, Project founder and director , Linda Blachman, completed a book intended to bring the mothers’ insights, wisdom, and teaching stories to other families living with a parent’s illness, to caregivers, and to the general public. Another Morning: Voices of Truth and Hope for Mothers with Cancer(Seal Press/The Avalon Group, 2006) is now available.
While continuing to record living stories in four Bay Area counties, our dedicated group of trained Volunteer Listeners, currently in their eighth year of service, took part in a Listener Leadership Development Program to be prepared for potential mentoring and leadership roles.
MLS has been enthusiastically received by mothers, their families, health care providers, clinicians, clergy, and oral historians throughout the Bay Area and, increasingly, across the country. The Project has been served by over 170 volunteers and pro bono professionals and consultants and has received in-kind assistance from scores of committed friends and small businesses.
In 2005, MLS ended its pilot project phase under the pro bono nonprofit fiscal agency of Mount Zion Health Fund. The San Francisco Institute on Aging became our nonprofit fiscal agent for special projects. Additionally, we now offer training, consulting, and mentoring on a for-fee basis. With the publication of Another Morning,we have planted the seeds for the replication of our model and the development of similar services in other communities here and abroad. |
