The Opening Doors Project at CMHA is about strengthening, fostering and cultivating healthier Ontario communities by facilitating FREE interactive and experiential peer-led workshops that address mental health, racism and discrimination within newcomer communities and communities of mental health survivors. The Opening Doors Staff created their own digital stories about their experiences as newcomers with mental issues. They are using their digital stories in the workshops as a way to share their experiences, educate about the issues and advocate for change.
My Bike, My Inner Strength by Leticia.It has been ten years since the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, a private foundation based in Montreal, launched a pan-Canadian environmental education program called Green Street. The goal of the program was to encourage active participation of young people in environmental stewardship. As the program wraps up, six people from Green Street came together to create stories that reflected the program’s key learning, and to celebrate the work of a community of people who have been committed and passionate about the work.
Roots. Water. Growth. by Caitlin. Dancing In The Rain by Jen. Steam by Ksief. Eco Ethical Club by Chris.The Academic Upgrading program at the Centre for Community Learning & Development offers adult learners an opportunity to increase their literacy, math and technological skills, and supports them to go on to further education and training. Digital storytelling gave the Level 4/5 students in the program an opportunity to reflect on their life experiences and their goals for the future. Here are some stories from the 2010 class!
Check out new stories from the latest open workshop!
Prima Facie by Jrey So It Goes by EmilyWelcome to our blog! We’re happy that you visited. This is a place where we will be sharing digital stories with you.
The stories on this website were created by people like you and me. We all have a story to tell and the ability to tell it. Sometimes we just need the opportunity to voice our stories. Sometimes we need a reminder that there are different ways to tell a story. Images, music, or even other peoples’ ideas can help us in the process of talking about our own lives. The sound of your voice can bring an audience closer to you. As you watch these digital stories, remember that storytelling is an act of courage.
These storytellers have agreed to share their stories with you. Maybe watching them will make you feel less alone, maybe you’ll be inspired, maybe you’ll learn something new, maybe you’ll laugh out loud, (or maybe you’ll cry), maybe you’ll want to tell your own story. This is the power of sharing stories. They invite more stories. Maybe we all need to listen a little more closely to each other.
The digital stories in this blog were created in workshops facilitated by two community organizations that are working to empower people to create and share their own digital stories as a strategy for personal and community transformation. Centre for Community Learning & Development and North York Community House both work with communities to use digital storytelling as a tool for engagement and mobilization efforts, for educating and raising awareness about urgent social issues, to work for policy change, assess community needs, conduct research and evaluate programs. Some of the digital story workshops were developed in partnership with other organizations in Toronto, and across Canada and some of the digital story workshops were delivered in our home organizations.
Based on the model developed by the Center for Digital Storytelling in Berkeley, California, our workshops blend creative writing, oral history, and digital video production. We are trained in the Center for Digital Storytelling methodology and work with CDS to promote digital storytelling locally, nationally and internationally.
Stay connected, as we will be posting more videos from new and upcoming projects.
To learn more about how you can get involved click here.
In March, the Schizophrenia Society of Canada brought together youth from across the country to share their stories about mental health. The stories were made as part of a participant action research project looking at the reasons young people who have experienced psychosis use cannabis. A group of twenty-three youth came together at the Delta Chelsea Hotel to share their experiences, learn from each other and be creative. Several youth who made their digital stories are peer leaders in the project, and will use their stories to engage their communities on the issues.
I’m Just A Regular Everyday Normal Guy by William. Label Maker by Elise. Bare All by Rachel. Cutting Through Confusion by Aaron. by Stella.Queer Voices of the North Film Festival is Northern Ontario’s only queer film festival, hosted annually in Sault Ste. Marie. Celebrating it’s fifth year, Queer Voices invited the Centre for Digital Storytelling to offer a workshop for young people from the Sault Ste Marie area to make stories. The stories were screened at the festival to resounding applause and cheers.
My First Time… Being Me by Nancy. Love Has No Gender by Chase. Untitled by Casey. To Be Or Not To Be… Queer by Brad. tête à tête by Michelle.We spent four weekends in February working on stories with youth and elders in Six Nations. CDS Toronto partnered with cultural awareness presenter Cindy Martin to Haudenosaunee elders and youth to make digital stories. Funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation and sponsored by the Six Nations Health Foundation Inc., the ECHOES project will use the stories in cultural awareness workshops in schools in the Haldimand region.
Footsteps of My Ancestors by Cindy.
Decisive Moments by Rick.
Reflections by Romaine.
Tota by Ima.
Growing Time by Iowne. Turning My Life Upside Down by Lauren. What Is Real? by Vera.The truth about stories is that that’s all we are.
- Thomas King
- Thomas King
This digital story collection was created in 2009-2010 as a part of a community-driven storytelling project led by the Rigolet Inuit Community Government in Nunatsiavut. In the project, community members used digital media to create place-based narratives, documenting the impacts of climate change on human health and well-being, and sharing adaptation strategies. Individually, these stories represent poignant personal narratives and observations; collectively, they weave together a rich tapestry of experiences and wisdom that attempt to redefine the borders between science and stories, humans and landscapes. Through our many voices, we invite the viewer on a personal journey through the terrain of Northern Labrabor, guided by the stories of Inuit residents from Rigolet. Welcome to our world.
These digital stories were made as part of the Changing Climate, Changing Health, Changing Stories project, funded by Health Canada, First Nations and Inuit Health Branch. For more information about the Changing Climate, Changing Health, Changing Stories project, contact project co-directors Ashlee Cunsolo Willox and Sherilee Harper or project lead Sarah Blake.
Each year, the Centre for Community Learning & Development brings together immigrant women to participate in a community leadership development program called the Immigrant Women’s Integration Project. The women come from different cultural and geographic communities, some having just immigrated within the last 3 months, others settled for years in Toronto. While there are similarities between their neighbourhoods, the communities have different needs, cultural identities, histories, and geographies. Through Neighbourhoods Story Project, CDS and audio artist Reena Katz worked with IWIP participants to create an interactive storymap of Toronto using digital storytelling, audio art and photography as tools for immigrant women from across Toronto to explore community and identity.
This project was funded by the Toronto Arts Council and The Ontario Arts Council.
Have a look around the Neighbourhoods Storymap; the red place markers are photographs, the green place markers are audio portraits, and the blue place markers are digital stories.
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