STILL WATERS IN A STORM

Hola! I'm Stephen Haff, and I'm raising money for Still Waters in a Storm, my one-room school for immigrant and refugee families living in poverty. The school began in 2007 in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and since September of 2022 I've been replicating the work in Poughkeepsie, New York. Still Waters not only teaches English, it also creates a community of safety and belonging for people on the margins of American society. The basic practice is for the group to read together, write responses to the reading, then take turns reading their writings out loud while everyone listens in a sacred hush. There is only one rule: "Everyone listens to everyone." The grace of this simple process changes lives for the better. I built this school to shelter the vulnerable, myself included, after traumatic experiences in the New York City public school system. The funds raised here will be used to pay me a living wage for running the program in both Brooklyn and Poughkeepsie full time, and for scholarships that make it possible for families to study with me by providing for child care and transportation and lost wages, the main obstacles to their receiving the education they--parents and children--desperately need. The two locations will cooperate in broadcasting their stories via radio.