Adela Hittell shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Hi Adela, thank you so much for joining us today. We’re thrilled to learn more about your journey, values and what you are currently working on. Let’s start with an ice breaker: What are you most proud of building — that nobody sees?
Myself. I am most proud of building the structure, security and peace within myself. For a long time, I hated the thought of my existence, the thought of me. Now, I cannot imagine thinking like that. I am so worth the effort to put in the work of healing, finding joy, and creating the life I have been blessed and gifted with. This breath. Glory to God, for saving my life on more than one occasion in my dissociated life.
EVERY HUMAN being is WORTH the EFFORT of showing up for, even if the only one showing up is yourself. You are worth it.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Adela Hittell—founder of Project Human Inc. (PHInc.), a Jacksonville nonprofit that uses film, fashion, and community arts to advance mental and emotional wellbeing with a core focus on suicide prevention. I’m a creator, producer, and neighbor who believes the most powerful change starts with a simple conversation and the courage to keep showing up.
PHInc. is different because we’re peer-to-peer and human-first. We don’t lead with labels—we lead with humanity. Our work lives where creativity meets care: The Artist Within Podcast, our Monthly Community Conversations, and our multi-year documentary Define the Narrative, filmed with the Jacksonville community. In 2026 we’re bringing it all together with Runway to Resilience (May 9th)—a fashion-and-arts night that honors mothers and families, veterans and first responders, teachers and healthcare workers, and every human carrying something heavy. This event helps us finish the documentary with the resilient ending our city deserves.
My story is simple: I came to America, learned by doing, and built a life by serving. I create spaces where people feel seen, heard, and safe enough to tell the truth—then we turn that truth into art that moves communities to action. If you’re looking for hope you can feel and help you can touch, that’s what we make at PHInc. Humans first—always.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What part of you has served its purpose and must now be released?
The fighter has laid down her sword, taken the armor off and laid to rest. My life has been forged in death by the human hand.
Since I was a child, I have known nothing but tragedy from humanity. In-between there may be moments that light up the darkness so brightly that it goes away but never truly gone. I spent years fighting for any bit of light.
By the time I became a mother, the darkness consumed every part of me.
Having my child, my son. allowed me to see the world through his eyes and experience the joy of his life.
There was a moment in my life I realized that I was the problem in my whole story that existed now. I was the fighter, the mother, the father, the brother, the sister, the friend and everything else in-between but I was never a child. My mind created a corner of the world where it was safe for the child with a teddy and the child with a machete. Both played a part in my growing up, healing and understanding. I realized I was the “person” on the street telling this child to come out., I’ll protect her, but every time she trusted, I took her to battle more in my own insecurity and NEED of surviving.
One day it hit me, she will never trust me, if I do not trust that I can be as delicate, vulnerable and honest that I will change my ways. That she will not have to protect herself from me.
I would not harm me anymore. In order to do that, the fighter, the warrior, and protector who knew nothing but bloodshed, decided there was nothing to fight but the self.
Once I did that, the connection I made within my mind, body and soul was remarkable. The idea that out of fear, as with anything or anyone around us, we make decisions that hurt us more.
I refuse that, I rebuke it and I don’t want it. Now, I allow myself to be the childlike human I was design to be, to see joy, love, be curious and be at peace with the knowing that I was worth the effort of walking through the valley to collect my own being.
The child within me is now free to roam and share her growth since she is no longer running away from herself.
What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
Defining wounds of my life are deep and extremely dark. My roots were forged in the depths of hell created by the human hand. I was forced out of my home at the age of 5 by Jihad, who took me captive, tortured and murdered my family members. By 11 I was forced to take another identity and culture in another country. That’s just the beginning and a story for anther time.
CPTSD and Dissociate Amnesia cause an identity wound that was the most difficult war to overcome. Figuring out my own humanity in this world.
The deepest wound is the wound created by the human hand just as the grandest healing can happen by the human hand.
For 36 years, I bled, grieved and hoped for a change of my past only to learn that the change comes from the creation instead of destruction.
I decided I was worth saving. Worth the effort of trying and worth the effort of living.
How I AM continuously healing is through storytelling of the human experience. I do not shy away from the conversation and the feeling of the human.
I am healing by creating the organization, the projects within them that share stories of human triumph and resilience.
I am healing thread by thread when I create an outfit for a project or show. I am healing when I get to express without words and without shame, guilt and judgement.
I AM healing by creating the thing that everyone who has ever survived and came to this country for… the AMERICAN DREAM.
Because I am alive, thriving and breathing freedom, I AM THE AMERICAN DREAM.
Most importantly, I am healing because I realized that Jesus took all of my pain. The memories I do not have or the identity I am missing, was never for me in the first place. I was spared by walking away from a war with no memory or physical damage.
I am because God is.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?
The belief that humans are worth the effort of showing up for. I am worth showing up for.
Humans have the capacity and ability to change, shape and define their lives. There is nothing greater than when you meet a human in their space and place of existence. When you meet the human in their human experience and give your time and attention to them without any reservation or want for yourself. I truly believe we save lives when we show up.
That is why no matter how long it takes me to bring this message and mission to humanity through Project Human, I will be advocating, educating and informing. I am the project this human has created and built by showing up for themselves.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. What do you understand deeply that most people don’t?
What I understand most that people don’t is that it doesn’t matter what you do on the big scale. At the end of our lives nothing will matter. When we are forced to face our own mortality we realize there is NOTHING that matters in this world, but that in MY world everything matters. I matter in my own world and that is enough.
I also am extremely content with the knowledge that I have been blessed with yet another day of opportunity to be better and do better. Every breath is wealth. Treasure that.
Our lives are so small in comparison to God’s creations but they are the most important in God’s creation.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.phinc-ing.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phinc_newwaytothink/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/project-human-inc
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/projecthumaninc
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@ProjectHumanIncPHInc
Image Credits
All Images by PHInc.
