Bring The Soul Box Project to your community!

Box-making gatherings not only introduce The Soul Box Project to groups, but provide a platform for healing and sharing experiences and hopes for a more civil society. Instructions for how to host a Box-making gathering can be found here. 

Some of the most ardent supporters of The Soul Box Project are faith communities. We have put together a toolkit called We'll Take the Sabbath for congregations. It includes ideas for adopting the Project. The idea of We'll Take the Sabbath is that 100 people are shot every day in the U.S.. A faith community can step forward and say, "We'll hold space for the people shot on our Sabbath day. As a congregation, we will commit to folding 100 Soul Boxes every week." Some churches have also committed to holding a "Soul Box Sunday" each month, providing supplies and folding coaches during Fellowship Hour. The toolkit for faith communities can be found here. 

Activist organizations (Moms Demand Action, Grandmothers Against Gun Violence, Wear Orange), schools, faith communities, mental health organizations (NAMI), arts centers and councils ... all have participated in the Project. Ideas about using Soul Boxes in schools can be found here. 

Eventually, all Soul Boxes are sent to our central workspace in Portland, Oregon. Before they are sent in, they can be used in local exhibits and events. To do that, a central Box drop-off location is needed. Examples of drop-off locations can be found here.  Any local locations can be included on the Soul Box website. 

There are several ways to introduce Soul Boxes at community events. Provide Box-making materials and guidance at fairs and gun-sense events. Share the Project at conferences. Set up a static display with Box-making instructions and supplies in public spaces. Downloadable flyers with folding instructions can be found here.  

A backpack of 100 Soul Boxes, representing the number of people shot in the U.S. every day weighs about 5 pounds. These backpacks are very effective in marches and at community events. Contact the Project to request backpack kits or borrow pre-made packs. (Already have a backpack kit? View the assembly video here.)

Soul Box exhibits can be small or large. Because the Project is all about helping people "see" the numbers, each exhibit, no matter what the size, is tied to a statistic. Smaller exhibits can be staged using the Soul Boxes made locally. Large-scale exhibits, using panels made in Portland, can be staged in almost any size or shaped venue.

A video tour of a large-scale exhibit in Portland, Oregon representing 15,000 gunfire victims -- the number of people shot during the first three months of 2019  -- can be found here. 

See how the components of the large-scale videos can be used in different configurations to fit different venues. A behind-the-scenes video can be found here. 

Components for a large-scale exhibit can be shipped to cities across the country. Typically, we will ask for help meeting the costs of these shipments. Please contact us to find out more details. 

Examples of displays and events, large and small, can be viewed below. 

Use your local media contacts to drive visitors to your events. Examples of press releases; a background document with current information about The Soul Box Project; examples of press coverage and downloadable logos and photos are available on our media pages.