The Origin Story Project is a community based initiative by Natural Born Tellers non-profit organization based in Toronto, which focuses on reviving storytelling pathways among Black Canadian communities for healing and community building. Born from a desire to support the healing of ancestral wounds from the African holocaust, combined with the systemic pressures faced by present day beings of Canada’s African diaspora this project weaves together the tenants of culture, identity, resilience and epigenetics in an effort to establish new ways of fostering authentic cultural expression.
Role: Researcher & Inclusive Designer
Team Member: Nikkie To
Category: human-centered design, community facilitation
Methods: community engagement activities, research design, interviews, survey, workshop design & facilitation
Publication: full written report available here
Website: www.naturalborntellers.org
Team Member: Nikkie To
Category: human-centered design, community facilitation
Methods: community engagement activities, research design, interviews, survey, workshop design & facilitation
Publication: full written report available here
Website: www.naturalborntellers.org
The Process:
Preliminary research to support the case for Black wellbeing, the role of trauma in the Black diaspora and the power of storytelling to transmute that trauma was conducted. Based on previous experience the organization knew that a digital resource of sorts would be needed and required recommendations on what and how to build storytelling tools for community access. The research design involved an extensive environmental scan and three community engagements.
Preliminary research to support the case for Black wellbeing, the role of trauma in the Black diaspora and the power of storytelling to transmute that trauma was conducted. Based on previous experience the organization knew that a digital resource of sorts would be needed and required recommendations on what and how to build storytelling tools for community access. The research design involved an extensive environmental scan and three community engagements.
Step 1: An environmental scan was performed to gather data on (1) building communities of belonging (2) digital learning environments (3) storytelling (4) accessibility (5) governance
Step 2: A survey was designed and distributed to the community which captured 31 responses.
Step 3: Expert interviews were held with 15 professional storytellers and story facilitators.
Step 4: A live storytelling workshop was held to test a storytelling model that derived from the survey and interview data.
Step 5: All of the data was analyzed and categorized into strategic recommendations which NBT organization could further develop as inclusive product and service offerings, leveraging storytelling, and supporting the community.
