{"id":115,"date":"2018-03-12T16:09:44","date_gmt":"2018-03-12T16:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/transforming-stories\/?p=115"},"modified":"2018-09-18T18:14:07","modified_gmt":"2018-09-18T18:14:07","slug":"i-think-it-is-a-very-powerful-way-of-communicating-issues-joness-reflections-on-transforming-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/transforming-stories\/2018\/03\/12\/i-think-it-is-a-very-powerful-way-of-communicating-issues-joness-reflections-on-transforming-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"A powerful way of communicating issues"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\">&#8220;When the Transforming Stories team came to us, we were part of an advisory committee that advised a larger committee that supports women who were facing homelessness. So, there were two co \u2013 chairs and 8 members. City employees we worked with introduced us to people at McMaster\u2019s Social Work and Theatre departments. And they came in, talked to us about the project and asked us what we thought about it. And we were like, yeah let\u2019s go for it. Why not? We came to educate and inform. That\u2019s one of our primary objectives to inform about the gaps in the system, to provide the women\u2019s perspective.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\">\u2014 Jones<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<pre><em>Editor's note: 'Jones' is a pseudonym chosen by one of our anonymous project participants. Every now and then we will hear from our participants about their experiences of Transforming Stories, Driving Change.<\/em><\/pre>\n<h2>What is your role on the project?<\/h2>\n<p>I performed as one of the characters who had all of these experiences. Life happened. She was unable to go back to work or continue work, and she was then beginning to face all of these challenges: losing her family, having a marriage dissolved, and all these other things. Some of the information we used in the skit is not only ours, the people performing in the play, but it\u2019s also our friends, people who we\u2019ve talked with, people who have shared stuff with us. So, the stories come from different voices. These stories are a combination of all these different experiences. And I think that was powerful because you realize how similar we are, that we all walk on this path. We think that we\u2019re just alone, but then when you start talking about it you start realizing, oh man there something wrong here! All of these experiences are like my experience. Something must be wrong. So we kinda brought all those stories together. There is a little bit of us in there. But not so much so. It is actually saying what is happening out there. It\u2019s sharing stories.<\/p>\n<h2>Have you ever use arts approaches before to share these stories?<\/h2>\n<p>No! No! Not like this. We have not! And that\u2019s the beauty of this project because I didn\u2019t go to drama school. I don\u2019t know much about acting or anything like this. It was nerve-racking! Right? But we had good mentors, directors and teachers. They were just awesome. And it all came together with us telling these stories. It was fascinating!<\/p>\n<h2>For a person who does not know Transforming Stories how would you describe the project to them?<\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s like sitting around a fire and talking about life, school, health, relationships and stuff. You are relaxed! You\u2019re calm. You are venting, not really venting, but just talking about stuff. You are reminiscing.<\/p>\n<p>I remember the first time we sat down together, we were told to bring an object or two that meant something to us. We sat in a circle and explained what that object was. For me personally, that story circle reminded me of my grandmother. Because grandmama would always sit with us and have this chitchat. This comes from my culture. But the theatre director was saying this approach is common in Indigenous cultures too, this story sharing. And I thought they do this too? I guess were all the same.<\/p>\n<p>And it brings a sense of community. Because you are in a circle. There\u2019s nobody above or below. We are one. And I think that\u2019s kind of sets up this catalyst of actions. All the women in our committee, ten of us, we were open about stuff and sharing stuff. And a lot of stuff came out when we were doing this. And that evolved into something else.<\/p>\n<p>So, let me make this short, <em>Transforming Stories<\/em> is basically telling your story from your perspective without pointing fingers. Because you know, it\u2019s experience. It\u2019s not to make anyone feel bad. It\u2019s not about making anybody feel sorry. But it\u2019s sharing. We are sharing it from a place of truth. It\u2019s not like I\u2019m going to tell you what you want to hear because of your position. It\u2019s more like what I\u2019m going to tell you irrespective of your position. I think the <em>Transforming Stories<\/em> process takes away the shame. It takes away the pressure. We get down to the nitty-gritty. I think it is a very powerful way of communicating issues.<\/p>\n<p>I hope, this is my hope, I think <em>Transforming Stories<\/em> should go on. I don\u2019t have anything against town halls, but I\u2019m hoping that we have <em>Transforming Stories<\/em> about different topics, and have people come around and talk. Let\u2019s have a discussion. Let\u2019s chit chat.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;When the Transforming Stories team came to us, we were part of an advisory committee that advised a larger committee that supports women who were facing homelessness. So, there were two co \u2013 chairs and 8 members. City employees we worked with introduced us to people at McMaster\u2019s Social Work and Theatre departments. And they &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/transforming-stories\/2018\/03\/12\/i-think-it-is-a-very-powerful-way-of-communicating-issues-joness-reflections-on-transforming-stories\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">A powerful way of communicating issues<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-participant-voice","tag-participant"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A powerful way of communicating issues - Transforming Stories, Driving Change<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/macblog.mcmaster.ca\/transforming-stories\/2018\/03\/12\/i-think-it-is-a-very-powerful-way-of-communicating-issues-joness-reflections-on-transforming-stories\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A powerful way of communicating issues - Transforming Stories, Driving Change\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&#8220;When the Transforming Stories team came to us, we were part of an advisory committee that advised a larger committee that supports women who were facing homelessness. 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