Albert Torres

Previously incarcerated for 25 years, Albert Torres began working at Urban Alchemy in 2020.

He was a Practitioner of safety and service at the pop-up Care Village in the Civic Center, tending to people with mental health issues who have been displaced during the pandemic.

He has been working with the VRE team since February 2022 to jointly create a new approach for facilitating STEM learning in outdoor public spaces.

Albert volunteers for the Physicians Organizing Committee, advocating for mental health care and better working conditions for nurses and doctors.

He enjoys drawing, hiking, biking, crabbing, and cooking, and would love to chat with anyone about these activities along with life experiences, healing from trauma and making better life choices.

Albert will be speaking at:

Museums, Health & Wellbeing Summit

Tuesday, 7th February 2023

Trauma-informed Approaches to Support Inclusive Learning in Urban Public Spaces

More organisations are meeting communities where they are by bringing science and art experiences into public spaces. We recognise the potential these experiences have to support community well-being, but we also struggle with a common challenge in urban public space: How can we create the necessary physical and psychological safety required for learning? Urban Alchemy, an organisation committed to well-being in traumatised urban spaces, partnered with the Exploratorium in SF to develop a facilitation approach that addresses this challenge. This presentation will share how the place-based, trauma-informed facilitation strategies they developed can add to your efforts to promote community well-being!