The Storyboard Project, founded by Mira Zimet in 2014, is a short documentary web series created to lift up stories of youth who have experienced foster care. The project is based in Los Angeles, but this past year, Zimet, along with her husband, purchased an Airstream trailer, hitched it to a truck and went on the road — with Zimet meeting and interviewing youth along the way.
The Imprint will be featuring these videos throughout the month of December. We begin with The Storyboard Project’s profile of Eltuan Dawson of Kentucky.
“We need to do the work, that’s why we have to keep shining this light in these areas of disparity, so that we can help folks who need the help and create systems and policies that create equity.” – Eltuan, Kentucky
In this short film, Eltuan shares his foster care journey from kinship care to foster homes. He talks about what it is like to move through 16 different placements — and almost as many schools. Strong in math, Eltuan recalls walking into a geometry class where they had already learned about shapes, angles and tangents — something he hadn’t been taught at his previous school.
“I was like, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing,’” he shared. “It was very hard to pass that class and I felt like I was put behind. But those moves became easier, after about four of them.”
“On the Road” is sponsored by Journey to Success. Stay tuned for more great profiles of youth from Arizona, California, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and Tennessee.