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Community Works Manitoba Inc. is a not-for-profit community development and training organization based in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Over the past 30 years we have worked with program administrators, front line staff and community volunteers in First Nation communities and urban social service agencies to develop and deliver a wide range of economic and healing and wellness initiatives.
Whether the focus is on economic or social challenges, we always begin by inviting participants to share stories from their own lives and from the lives of their ancestors. We believe that it is our own stories that hold the wisdom we need to create safer, more just, and healthier futures.
VISION
Community Works envisions a society in which individuals, families, and communities apply their stories, wisdom, and strengths to address critical challenges and to help build safer, more just, and healthier futures.
MISSION
We create spaces for addressing challenges and celebrating accomplishments through sharing stories and diverse perspectives. Our workshops provide individuals and groups with tools to imagine new possibilities and engage in individual and collective change.
UPCOMING EVENTS
AT THE HEART OF THE MATTER:
Meeting in the Story Circle
An in-person digital storytelling workshop
WORKSHOP DETAILS
PREREQUISITES: Basic computer skills
LENGTH: Three days
DATES:: December 1, 2 & 3, 2023 (Friday, Saturday, Sunday)
TIME: 9:00 am to 4:00 pm each day
LOCATION: Winnipeg, MB (location provided upon registration)
CAPACITY: 6
*TUITION: $500 + gst
Registration closes 1 week before workshop start date.
CALL FOR PARTNERSHIPS
Who are the storytellers in your community?
Community Works would love to partner with your organization on a multi-media storytelling project. Possible story themes include stories of:
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Community Works would be pleased to visit your organization and deliver a presentation on our transformative approach to story work.
And we’d love to have a conversation with you about how our own stories help us create a sweeter and more just world.
We’d love to hear from the storytellers in your community.
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Home and Community
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Culture and Identity
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Our Connection to the Earth
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Let Justice Roll
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Gender and Identity
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Our Healing Journey
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We are all Treaty People
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Or any theme that matters to your community….
RECENT EVENTS
CELEBRATING TREATIES WITH PUPPETS
Community Works was pleased to take part in the annual We Are All Treaty People Celebration at The Forks on Sunday September 17th, for an afternoon of ceremony, speakers, music, poetry, displays of Indigenous crafts and stations for do-it-yourself creative activities. We were there with 6 wonderful volunteers (shown in the first photo below) to teach puppet-making to people of all ages and many backgrounds.
AT THE HEART OF THE MATTER:
Changing the World One Story at a Time
In the summer, 2023, Frances Ravinsky was invited to deliver a presentation on digital storytelling as part of the Lanny Remis Speakers Series held at the Gwen Secter Creative Living Centre in Winnipeg. https://www.gwensecter.com/
STORIES AS COMPASSES:
Navigating Our World Through Our Own Stories
Frances Ravinsky from Community Works recently delivered a Zoom presentation about Digital Storytelling and screened some sample stories at Creativity Cafe.
Listen to the presentation here >>
The digital stories that Frances screened during her presentation can be viewed by clicking the thumbnails below:
Ice Cube
White As a Wall
IN OUR OWN VOICE:
Honouring our Healing Journey
In April 2023 Community Works returned to Thrive Community Support Circle for 6 days of art making (taught by Winnipeg painter Cori Jaye Ettienne www.corijaye.com) and digital storytelling. Participants shared personal stories through art around themes of trauma and reclamation.
"We are story. All of us. What comes to matter then is the creation of the best possible story we can while we’re here; you, me, us, together. When we can do that and we take the time to share those stories with each other, we get bigger inside, we see each other, we recognize our kinship – we change the world, one story at a time…”