About the project:

This is a community-driven journalism initiative that honours the linguistic and narrative sovereignty of identities that have been harmed, silenced and oppressed by mainstream media. In this model, the people who are generally considered sources take the lead in documenting their stories.

In our region, there are many hidden initiatives that are exemplars of social infrastructure. Three community-driven initiatives will be selected and mentored over the course of three months in weaving the narrative of their beginnings, their makings and their visionings. This initiative is expansive in the ways that it will allow for the storyteller to document, report on, and archive their presence.

Language and medium have both been barriers and tools of control in media. Thus, we will not restrict the initiative to one media format; we will facilitate storytelling that is investigative, critical, and personal in a variety of ways (e.g., long-form, podcasts, photo essays, data visualization) and diverse formats (e.g. text, audio, video, and visual art).

i) Mentorship period- three months or six months
ii) Three community stories
iii ) Storytellers will be provided with tools and a honorarium
iv) Workshop training
v) Resources: journals; microphones (that are iPhone and Android compatible) and recorders

Where will the project take place:

This initiative will take place in Kitchener, where our team is based. We expect the benefits of this initiative will be region-wide.