Thousand Oaks Remembers is a community storytelling initiative born out of the dual tragedies of November 7th and 8th, 2018 — the mass shooting at the Borderline Bar and Grill, which claimed twelve lives, and the Hill and Woolsey fires, which forced the evacuation of thousands and devastated the surrounding landscape. Two catastrophic events, arriving within hours of each other, in a community that had never faced anything like either one.

What happened next defined this project. The people of Thousand Oaks showed up — for strangers, for neighbors they had never spoken to, across every political and cultural difference. With grief still raw, they chose compassion. With chaos all around them, they chose connection.

Thousand Oaks Remembers began in 2019 as a way to gather and honor those stories. It has since grown into an ongoing initiative — now entering a new grant-funded phase — rooted in the belief that the stories of how we showed up for one another are not only worth preserving, but worth building on.

How do we stay in community?

Stories can help us find our way back to one another. Thousand Oaks Remembers began in the aftermath of November 2018 and continues today through storytelling, remembrance, and community connection.

Remembering is where we began. Community is where we’re going.

Thousand Oaks Remembers began as a community storytelling project to help the community connect and process the tragedies. Through listening groups, written stories, and community gatherings, people were given space to share, listen, and remember.

Today, that work is growing into a new chapter.

Storytelling as a path back to community.

Story as a Path Back to Community is the current phase of Thousand Oaks Remembers. This is a grant-funded initiative made possible through Sacred Discoveries. Through story circles, storytelling workshops, and community gatherings, we are helping people in the Conejo Valley reconnect with one another and rebuild the relational trust that holds a community together not just in moments of tragedy, but in ordinary time.

How do we stay in community?

What We’re Working Toward

We live in a moment when it is easy to look at the person across from us and see an opposing ideology instead of a human being. Thousand Oaks Remembers exists to interrupt that, not by resolving our differences, but by reminding us that we belong to each other. We are not waiting for some grand gesture or individual to bring this community back together. We are starting here, with the people right in front of us, one story at a time.

This work has always been about people.

Thousand Oaks Remembers is rooted in the belief that community is strengthened when people have space to be heard, to listen, and to connect. The work is guided by community members and leaders who bring together experience in storytelling, facilitation, ministry, community engagement, and lived experience.

There is a place for you here. Whether you want to listen, share your story, gather with others, host a Story Circle, or help facilitate the work, there are many ways to become part of the next chapter.