Our Story
Thousand Oaks Remembers began in the aftermath of November 2018 — the Borderline Bar and Grill shooting and the Hill and Woolsey fires. What started as a community response to tragedy has grown into an ongoing commitment to remembrance, healing, and connection. From the listening groups and written story collection of 2019, through the annual Day of Remembrance, to the current grant-funded initiative launching in 2026 — this project has always been rooted in one belief: that stories are how we find our way back to one another.
November 2018
A community changed.
In November 2018, Thousand Oaks experienced the devastating Borderline shooting, followed by the Hill and Woolsey fires. In the days and weeks that followed, people across the community experienced loss, fear, uncertainty, grief, and profound disruption. But alongside that pain was an extraordinary response from the community. People showed up for one another.
They gathered.
They listened.
They shared.
They remembered.
And from that response, Thousand Oaks Remembers began.
Stories created connection.
When people were given space to share their experiences — and to hear the experiences of their neighbors — something happened. People discovered stories they had never heard before. They remembered experiences they hadn't talked about in years. They saw people they thought they knew in a different way.
And they found connection through listening.
A New Chapter: Story as a Path Back to Community
In 2026, Thousand Oaks Remembers entered a new phase through a grant from Sacred Discoveries, a foundation dedicated to supporting community healing and connection through story. The grant funds a project called Story as a Path Back to Community: an 11-month initiative bringing facilitated story circles, storytelling workshops, and community events to congregations, nonprofits, and community groups across the Conejo Valley. The question at the heart of this work is simple and urgent: do we know our neighbors well enough to know what they need? And are we already in relationship with one another when the next hard season comes?
2019 — Giving Stories a Place to Be Heard
Thousand Oaks Remembers created opportunities for community members to share their experiences and listen to the experiences of others.
The project developed several ways for people to participate:
Listening Groups - Small groups gathered in homes, offices, libraries, churches, community centers, schools, and other spaces to share and listen.
Written Stories - Community members were invited to preserve their experiences through written storytelling, with stories collected for the larger archive of the project.
Community Storytelling - On November 8, 2019, the community gathered at the Scherr Forum for T.O. Remembers: Stories from November 2018 — an evening dedicated to remembering, honoring, and listening.
In August 2019, more than 20 community facilitators were trained to help create these listening experiences.
From storytelling to remembrance
The work of Thousand Oaks Remembers continued beyond the original 2019 storytelling project, evolving into an ongoing commitment to remembrance and community gathering through the Day of Remembrance
.
This annual gathering creates space for the community to come together to remember, honor, and reflect.
