The Otsego Story Project is a community-led effort to document and amplify the lived experiences of Otsego residents—past and present. Many of the accounts in the Storybank address health outcomes that residents believe are connected to contamination in their community. A collaboration between Dr. Jennifer Lee Johnson’s Toxic Action Lab and Justice for Otsego, the project fulfills a vision originally conceived by the late Mary Zack and Dr. Johnson.
As Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR), the Otsego Story Project advances the proposition that storytelling is a vital tool for public health. By collecting and sharing the accounts of residents in this multimedia Storybank, the Otsego Story Project ensures that the human realities of environmental exposure are accessible and preserved. This work is supported by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) through September 2027.
The stories, accounts, and opinions expressed in the Otsego Story Project Storybank are those of the individual narrators and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the Toxic Action Lab, Michigan State University, or any affiliated partner organizations.
These narratives are preserved as oral histories to document lived experience. While every effort is made to provide context, the Toxic Action Lab does not independently verify every claim made regarding specific individuals or corporate entities mentioned in the text. All information provided by the narrators is shared for educational and community-documentation purposes and does not constitute legal or medical advice.
