Over the past several years, a local organization titled, My Story Matters has been serving the community through empowering individuals of all ages to take ownership of their stories and lives. And, over those years, Serve Daily has had the pleasure of sharing many of those stories. We at Serve Daily are excited to have a mental health professional with My Story Matters, Sterling Nebeker, provide an update on what this amazing organization is up to now.
Many exciting events and developments have unfolded since My Story Matters last submitted an article to Serve Daily. We have been refining and expanding our company’s vision and are now embarking on the next chapter of our journey. The scope of our work is broadening on many fronts, including within the prison system, in rural middle and high schools around Utah, and in various other community settings across the state. We are also certifying an increasing number of course guides to facilitate all of these ambitions. Many new adventures lie on the horizon for us, and we are both thrilled and grateful to continue spreading inspiration and empowerment to as many individuals as possible.
Our work in the Utah prison system presses on! Not only are we offering our Captain Your Story course to inmates, but also to their families and staff members now as well. Additionally, we are looking to begin offering the course to prisons in other states, beginning in Idaho. We have also started integrating the course into sober living and halfway house programs for individuals who are reentering society. We aspire to transform the criminal justice system and offer a greater sense of hope, direction, and motivation for all who are affected in one way or another.
Since September of last year, we have been taking the teen version of our course, Chart Your Story, into middle and high schools in rural areas across Utah. So far, these schools have included Cache Alternative High School in Logan, Valley High School in Orderville, Kanab Middle and High Schools in Kanab, Tintic High School in Eureka, and South Sevier High School in Monroe. More recently, we have also made trips to schools in Duchesne, Roosevelt, and Vernal, and we have plans to add other locations to our list in the coming months. We believe that by connecting with, inspiring, and empowering the rising generation across the state in this way, we can chart a promising course for the future of Utah.
Our general community initiatives are also expanding. For starters, we have recently begun hosting Captain Your Story classes specifically targeted toward young adults in Utah County. Seeing the potential for staff and client support, businesses and organizations in the local area are hosting Captain Your Story classes as well. Additionally, a financial version of Captain Your Story is now available for all interested community members. This version of the course includes the main Captain Your Story curriculum plus an additional six classes which teach participants how to apply the tools and principles learned during the first 12 weeks to their personal financial management.
As previously mentioned, in order to fully realize each of these initiatives, we are certifying more individuals to become course guides. Not only does this include community members, but also incarcerated individuals inside the prisons. After much negotiation and planning, we are now able to employ the very individuals we have been coaching and emboldening on the inside so that they can hit the ground running upon reentry.
All of us at My Story Matters are completely ecstatic about this next chapter in our organization’s story. Between our developments in the corrections system, our efforts to inspire the youth in Utah’s rural regions, and our expansions in the general community, our vision has enlarged in so many new ways. We have charted our course, raised the anchor, hoisted the sails, and now, we are casting off. We look forward to exploring new waters as our company continues to grow, and we hope to continue sharing our experiences with Serve Daily all along the way.
If you would like more information about what My Story Matters can do for you, please contact us at questions@mystorymatters.org.
You can also learn more about us at: mystorymatters.org and on Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin @mystorymatters.
Submitted by Sterling Nebeker
