How and when were you founded?
Internationally acclaimed humanitarian photographer Phil Borges founded Bridges in 2001. After photographing indigenous people around the world, he had a vision of giving voice to these children and allowing them to share their stories with students in the developed world.  Bridges adopted the workshop model to train mentors to help assist with this work in Seattle area classes as well as international sites.

I am a teacher. Can Bridges connect me with a Bridges classroom partner now?
For this year, and until July, 2008, Bridges has already selected a group of teachers and schools to work closely with, both locally and internationally.  Unfortunately, we are not able to work intensively with additional schools this year. However, through a partnership with another organization, called the International Education and Resource Network, called iEARN,   www.iearn.org, you can join and use their website to find partners in more than 110 countries.  

Do you have curriculum I can use in my classroom?
Yes!  We encourage you to use our free web-based resources for curriculum.  Bridges has developed a great resource of curriculum materials, particularly on climate change and cross-cultural introductory projects that provide a framework for classroom interactions.  We encourage you to use these from our website, and also free on the iEARN website. www.iearn.org  These can be superb sources of information so you don’t have to do it all from scratch.

As a teacher, how can I get further involved?
Propose that you become one of our core schools in the future.  While we cannot add further schools this year, we plan to expand next year both locally and internationally.  Let us know if you would like to be considered for becoming a Bridges site in the future, and use our interactive website for school to school communications.    We will be deciding on expanded school partners in the spring of 2008. Also, consider showing one of our digital stories as a supplement to your current curriculum. 

Where is your head office located?
We operate from the Getty Images building in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. Getty Images generously donates office space to Bridges.