From Personal Stories to Community Resilience
A small handmade booklet may seem simple.
But sometimes simple things create space for very important stories.
Zines can serve many purposes: they can validate present experiences, help us process past events, support healing, disseminate useful information and resources, and provide a form of self-expression.
At VELA, we became especially interested in zines while exploring identity and community resilience.
Telling Our Stories Matters
When we create something about our experiences, we do more than record information.
We make part of our internal experience visible.
A story that existed only inside us can now be observed.
And when we choose to share it, someone else can witness it.
The VELA training emphasized that telling one’s own story, or telling stories together as a community, can have therapeutic value. Zines can also support identity and community connection and create space for stories that may otherwise remain outside dominant cultural narratives.
Sometimes the message is:
This happened to me.
Sometimes it is:
This is what helped me survive.
Or:
This is what I want to remember about myself.
And sometimes it becomes:
This is who we are.
From “I” to “We”
Zines can be deeply personal, but they can also connect people.
Imagine a classroom in which everyone creates a small zine.
A group of caregivers sharing what helps them continue caring.
A family documenting traditions they do not want to lose.
A group of professionals collecting coping strategies.
A community recording stories of courage, beauty, humor, loss, hope, and resilience.
One zine tells a story.
A collection of zines begins to tell the story of a community.
The VELA presentation describes this movement through the language of our social systems: creating a zine can strengthen our immediate microsystem, while building a collection of people’s stories can also strengthen the larger mesosystem around us, including families, classrooms, neighborhoods, and communities.
Our Invitation
During our VELA project, we invited participants to experiment with four different kinds of zines:
1. Personal Resilience & Preferred Identity
2. Resources & Information
3. Beauty & Nature
4. Community Identity & Resilience
You can try one or create all four.
There is no requirement to be an artist.
There is no perfect zine.
There is only an invitation:
What is important enough to you that you would like to give it a page?
About This Creative Practice
This material was adapted from a presentation by Dr. Joe Mageary for the VELA Well-being seminar “Reflections on Identity: Working Towards Community Based Resilience.”
The exercise was introduced as a creative, art therapy-inspired approach to exploring identity, encouraging emotional expression, supporting healing, and strengthening personal and community resilience.
Through such activities, VELA Well-being continues its mission of supporting those who support others, offering educators, mental health professionals, caregivers, and communities opportunities for reflection, connection, and well-being.
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