The Odyssey Project™ is a collaborative theater process between youth from a juvenile detention facility in Santa Barbara county and undergraduate students from the University of California Santa Barbara. Using the template of Homer's Odyssey, the participants gather on the university campus to explore the mythic elements in their lives in order to reconstruct the epic poem in their own voices. The project leads to a public performance at a local theater. Everyone on this creative journey is a hero or heroine. The project is designed to honor youth in identifying their heroic life mission and map a course of action. It employs theater arts as a strategy for inspiring life affirming choices.

The function of the website is to continue the open forum by providing a place for networking and support for teens that have graduated from The Odyssey Project™ and a juvenile detention facility. We provide community resources, continued peer support and the opportunity of keeping our stories going.