Hello and welcome to our project!
Hi! What’s this about?
Glad you asked! We’re learning about how to be better prepared for future emergencies by talking to people about what they’re doing in the pandemic. We believe there’s a lot to learn from listening to people about your real experiences and how you’re figuring things out in a situation as unusual as this.
Based on some of the stories submitted, we noticed a trend. As it turns out, “purpose” is something that shows up fairly frequently in stories that end well. To learn more about this, check out this poster.
That’s neat. Who did you ask to participate?
We collected stories from people across the Metro Vancouver area with all different kinds of experiences, and especially people with cognitive disabilities, their families, and people who work with and support them.
What did you ask them to do?
We asked folks to tell us about something they’ve done or that’s happened to them. Then we asked some questions about that story, and a few questions about the storyteller as well. Folks chose which questions they wanted to answer, and shared as many stories as they wanted to.
What makes a good story?
The stories that we were interested in are the kind you might tell a friend when you’re just talking about your day, things that happened or things that you did. They don’t have to be special or “good” stories. We really just looked for some examples from your every day.
How private is this?
We didn’t ask for names ever, and the stories are totally anonymous.
And what happens after the stories are collected?
After we collected a lot of stories, we asked some of the people who shared their stories to help us interpret them. We looked for patterns and inspirations to help us think about what we can be doing differently right now and to be better prepared for future emergencies.
Who all is involved in this project?
This project is a joint effort of BACI, Kinsight, posAbilities, and UNITI, supported by a consulting team of Carolyn Camman and Chris Corrigan. It is funded by the McConnell Foundation.
You can read the Project Report here!
