Many in Northwest Indiana have family stories that connect to Gary. We have stories of hope: of arriving, of finding work, of neighborhood life, of churches and schools, of political engagement, of hard times and good times. We have stories of change: of Mayor Hatcher’s election, of expanded opportunities for housing and employment, of schools desegregating, of being in the nation’s eye. We have stories of fight or flight: of no longer feeling safe, of banning “for sale” signs in the neighborhood, of moving to the suburbs, of watching businesses leave for Southlake Mall, of jobs at the mill drying up. These many stories shape ourselves and our region.

Chorus of Voices: Retelling Northwest Indiana History

Listen Up! from Welcome Project Radio brings you a story along with discussion of that story from co-director Allison Schuette and Welcome Project aficionado Willow Walsh. This week's stories are Dodged a Bullet and People Have Their Attitudes.

Find these stories and more at welcomeproject.valpo.edu or listen to our weekly podcast by searching for Welcome Project on your favorite app.

Listen Up! Dodged A Bullet

"...there’s a legacy around the capacity to stand one’s own ground and say, 'No, this is who we are. And this is what we stand for. And this is what we can do.'"

This interview was recorded using Zoom.

~ a Welcome Project story ~

Find more at welcomeproject.valpo.edu or listen to our weekly podcast by searching for Welcome Project on your favorite app.

War Zone

"It’s those kinda questions that people are asking and...you have to have a little patience...because they don’t know."

~ a Welcome Project story ~

Find more at welcomeproject.valpo.edu or listen to our weekly podcast by searching for Welcome Project on your favorite app.

You Have Hair On Your Arms

Listen Up! from Welcome Project Radio brings you a story or two along with discussion of that story from co-director Allison Schuette and Welcome Project aficionado Willow Walsh and Reagan Skaggs. This week's stories are "Please, God, Let It Rain" and "Still Working on the Revolution."

Find these two stories and their transcripts at welcomeproject.valpo.edu or listen to our weekly podcast by searching for Welcome Project on your favorite app.

Listen Up! Still Working On The Revolution

"Living in your car... it's not a home."

Story by Connor O'Hagin; edited by Amanda Yonushatis.

This story comes from our Invisible Project collection, which aims to make visible the experiences of homelessness in our community. Find this story and its transcript at welcomeproject.valpo.edu. Tune into our weekly podcast by searching for Welcome Project on your favorite app.

Every Day Is Questionable

“We had this huge exodus and the population went from majority white to majority black.”

Find this story and its transcript at welcomeproject.valpo.edu and listen to our weekly podcast by searching for Welcome Project on your favorite app.

Divorce Themselves from Gary

Listen Up! from Welcome Project Radio brings you a story or two along with discussion of that story from co-director Allison Schuette and Welcome Project co-hosts Willow Walsh and Reagan Skaggs. This week's stories are "Shocked" and "Assimilating to a New Culture."

Find these stories and their transcripts at welcomeproject.valpo.edu or listen to our weekly podcast by searching for Welcome Project on your favorite app.

Listen Up! Assimilating to a New Culture

"Most of my childhood that I actually really remember is in the United States, so I am still struggling to find a home."

Edited by Nick Ladeau.

Find a video version of this story and its transcripts at welcomeproject.valpo.edu or listen to our weekly podcast by searching for Welcome Project on your favorite app.

I Belong In Art – Radio Edit

"...they wanted to fit in… they loved the idea of community… I mean, I think everybody wants that sense of belonging."

Edited by Rebecca Werner.

Find a transcript for this story at welcomeproject.valpo.edu and listen to our weekly podcast by searching for Welcome Project on your favorite app.

Not At The Expense Of Being Myself

“I can understand him so much more now as an adult but as a child it was very hurtful.” 

Edited by Rebecca Werner.

Find a transcript for this story at welcomeproject.valpo.edu and listen to our weekly podcast by searching for Welcome Project on your favorite app.

Because I Can Forgive

Listen Up! from Welcome Project Radio brings you a story or two along with discussion of that story from co-director Allison Schuette and co-hosts Willow Walsh and Reagan Skaggs. This week's stories are "Because I Can Forgive" and "Hold My Boundaries."

Find these stories and their transcripts at welcomeproject.valpo.edu or listen to our weekly podcast by searching for Welcome Project on your favorite app.

Listen Up! Forgive And Boundaries

Listen Up! from Welcome Project Radio brings you a story or two along with discussion of that story from co-director Allison Schuette and co-hosts Willow Walsh and Reagan Skaggs. This week we're doing something new – Allison is interviewing Reagan about her effort to unionize a Starbucks store in Valparaiso.

Find our stories and their transcripts at welcomeproject.valpo.edu or listen to our weekly podcast by searching for Welcome Project on your favorite app.

Listen Up! Unionizing Starbucks

Listen Up! from Welcome Project Radio brings you a story or two along with discussion of that story from co-director Allison Schuette and co-hosts Willow Walsh and Reagan Skaggs. This week's story is "I Get Food from the Food Bank" and we're also talking about a TikTok clip from Jack Corbett of Planet Money, "There are so many houses, and that is someone's fault."

Find "I Get Food from the Food Bank" and many other stories and their transcripts at welcomeproject.valpo.edu or listen to our weekly podcast by searching for Welcome Project on your favorite app.

Listen Up! I Get My Food from the Food Bank

Listen Up! from Welcome Project Radio brings you a story or two along with discussion of that story from co-director Allison Schuette and co-hosts Willow Walsh and Reagan Skaggs. This week's stories are "Residential Segregation and Racial Inequality" and "Black Mecca."

Find these stories and their transcripts at welcomeproject.valpo.edu or listen to our weekly podcast by searching for Welcome Project on your favorite app.

Listen Up! Black History Month

Listen Up! from Welcome Project Radio brings you a story or two along with discussion of that story from co-director Allison Schuette and co-hosts Willow Walsh and Reagan Skaggs. This week's stories are "Game Changer" and "That Fear Creeping Up."

Find these stories and their transcripts at welcomeproject.valpo.edu or listen to our weekly podcast by searching for Welcome Project on your favorite app.

Listen Up! Game Changer

Listen Up! from Welcome Project Radio brings you a story or two along with discussion of that story from co-director Allison Schuette and co-hosts Willow Walsh and Reagan Skaggs. This week's story is "We Were Them," and we'll be listening to the story with Valpo mayoral candidate Hannah Trueblood.

Find "We Were Them" and the transcript at welcomeproject.valpo.edu or listen to our weekly podcast by searching for Welcome Project on your favorite app.

Listen Up! Valpo Mayoral Candidate Hannah Trueblood

Listen Up! from Welcome Project Radio brings you a story or two along with discussion of that story from co-director Allison Schuette and co-host Willow Walsh. This week's stories are "I Know Dirt" and "Eliminated by Technology."

Find these stories and their transcripts at welcomeproject.valpo.edu or listen to our weekly podcast by searching for Welcome Project on your favorite app.

Listen Up! I Know Dirt

“I'm a man. I'm a trans man. I also want to do gender the way, like, butch lesbians do.”

Find a transcript for this story at welcomeproject.valpo.edu and listen to our weekly podcast by searching for Welcome Project on your favorite app.

Immutable Fact

“If I just let them assume, they’ll assume I have the same kind of stuff as them.”

Please Don't Come To My House

“Just because you’re homeless doesn’t mean you have to surrender humanity.”

Seeking Some Level of Normalcy

“Her income changed just the slightest bit and... it just kicked the underpinnings right out from under us.”

Tailspin

“Wow, it happened to me, it could happen to anybody.”

We Were Them

These stories are from the Invisible Project, a collaboration between the Welcome Project and Porter County Coalition for Affordable Housing, Housing Opportunities, Gabriel's Horn, Dayspring Women's Center, and Porter County Museum.


Don't Know How I Survived

Residents of Northwest Indiana share through their experiences some of the central history that continues to shape the region.

05 - Thinking Regionally Chorus

04 - Impact Chorus

03 - Flight Paths Chorus

02 - Neighborhoods Chorus

01 - Migration Chorus

“You have to embrace the differences because it helps you realize who you are and who you're not, who you don't wanna be or who you do wanna be.” 


Of Course—She Was My Roommate

"To see somebody else struggling and to be able to lend a hand or lend an ear—that’s living a diaconal life."
~ a Welcome Project story ~
Find more at welcomeproject.valpo.edu or subscribe to our weekly podcast by searching for "Welcome Project Valparaiso University" on your podcast app.

Battle Scars

"'Dad’s going to play Army.' That’s what they would say."
~ a Welcome Project story ~
Find more stories at welcomeproject.valpo.edu or subscribe to our weekly podcast by searching for "Welcome Project Valparaiso University" on your podcast app.

Lineage

~ a Welcome Project Flight Paths story ~

Part one of a two-part biographical story in which our 101-year-old storyteller remembers part of her family's journey prior to the Emancipation Proclamation up to her birth.

Find more at welcomeproject.valpo.edu or listen to our weekly podcast by searching for Welcome Project on your favorite app.

But I'm Still Here - Radio Edit

“If you are a good neighbor, your neighbor’s going to be a good neighbor.”

~ a Welcome Project story in collaboration with StoryCorps ~

Find more at welcomeproject.valpo.edu or listen to our weekly podcast by searching for Welcome Project on your favorite app.

Produced by Rich Elliott with interviews recorded by StoryCorps, a national nonprofit whose mission is to provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of our lives: www.storycorps.org

Neighboring In Kouts

"You see things through tunnel vision because society has set it up to where you don't have to see so much."

White Privilege

“Marine Corps was a decision based on my desire to want to provide for my family.”

Part 3 of an oral history story from an interview with Mayor Jerome Prince, Gary, Indiana. 

~ a Welcome Project Flight Paths story ~

Find more at welcomeproject.valpo.edu or listen to our weekly podcast by searching for Welcome Project on your favorite app.

Part 3 - Get Out Into The World - Radio Edit

“If I wasn’t at home or at school, I was in East Chicago hanging out with my grandparents.” 
- Nicole Martinez-LeGrand, Multicultural Collections Coordinator, Library and Archives Division, Indiana Historical Society.

~ a Welcome Project Flight Paths story ~
Find more at welcomeproject.valpo.edu or listen to our weekly podcast by searching for Welcome Project on your favorite app.

In This Community - Radio Edit

"Anybody who was not well-connected, you go to the Patch."

~ a Welcome Project Flight Paths story ~
Find more at welcomeproject.valpo.edu or listen to our weekly podcast by searching for Welcome Project on your favorite app.

The Patch

Collecting stories to make a difference. These first-person stories are part of the Welcome Project, an audio and video collection at Valparaiso University. Visit us as welcomeproject.valpo.edu.

Welcome Project at Valparaiso University

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks