About Abby Teal

Twenty years of working with youth has taught me how to love humans. Being honest, real, open, and out loud is what every teenager wants from humans in their community, and learning how to build life together with teens has challenged me to grow into a more genuine person.

I’m Abby Teal, and I work with people who are disempowered, disengaged, and disconnected to build confidence, courage, and connection in their community.  have learned to flip the paradigm of youth empowerment.

Instead of adults training teens from the top down, we ask young people to look around their community and see where they see something they want to impact. Their ideas birth restorative projects where they collaborate with other humans in their community and one another to learn skills, find resources, and build life together.

This is the process of empowerment through restoration. It is the work of a non-profit organization I partner with, ARK Farms, and it is transforming how we build life in our communities. In doing these programs, we have found out there are lessons we can learn from one another, ways to see humans in a different light, and growth opportunities for all of us, whether we are involved in education, support services, government, or the corporate world.

What we have learned through these community empowerment trainings is LIFE-building, and I am excited to share it with you. 

Married for 25 years and a mother of three amazing young adults, I’ve learned some things about relationships. As a family, we have been through tough challenges.

When my oldest child was eleven, I found out that my brain was falling out of my head, and I was told that if I survived brain surgery, I would probably never walk or talk again.

My husband’s life was threatened by a tumor the size of his fist only two years after my surgery. Our kids’ world seemed to breakdance on eggshells. These are some of the challenges that taught us how life can come from any circumstance. We’ve faced depression, severe anxiety, addiction, separation, and trauma, all of which formed the exigence for the work I do now.

My story has allowed me to gain perspectives from a variety of vantage points. I grew up as a child of affluence and influence, yet living overseas after Hurricane Katrina, my husband, kids, and I lived out of our car for a season until we were rescued.

I am a white, blonde female who traces my lineage back to the Declaration of Independence. I’m married to a brown-skinned immigrant who lives in the US as long as he can renew his green card, and our mixed-race children have heard every racial slur in the book.

Speaking six languages and majoring in classical studies did not prepare me for living in a wheelchair and being unable to walk or talk for the months that led up to my miraculous surgery. I am an ordained minister and a veteran of the foreign mission field, and I’ve been kicked out of more churches than some folks have ever been in.

I know intimately that having it all does not insulate you from suicide attempts, alcoholism, self-harm, trauma, or exploitation; but I am certain that building life together as a community can reverse the effects of adverse life experiences. I am living proof that there is hope.

This blog and the videos we share are here to help build life. We are working on releasing a book on “How to Love Humans,” and it is my mission to help people learn how to create supportive ecosystems in their communities.

We are in a part of history where we get to make a difference, and we need to. Building life is an Us-Together thing, and I am happy to get to share my stories and all we’re learning with you. Thank you for checking out this space.

I invite you to join in, share in the conversation, and let me know what life-building ideas you’d like to see grow in your family, neighborhood, or community. I’m excited to share this piece of history with you!