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Community Works Manitoba Inc. is a not-for-profit community development and training organization based in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
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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.
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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
Frances Ravinsky is delighted to be invited back for a second year of leadership at Earthsong adult singing camp hosted by United Church in Meadowood in Winnipeg, July 14 - 18, 2025. https://ucim.org/earthsong/
She will invite participants into the story circle to share stories from their own lives using different art forms as primary storytelling languages. Four storytelling workshops will be structured around ecologist Joanna Macy’s themes of Coming into Gratitude, Honouring our Pain, Seeking Wisdom, and Going Forth. There will be some teachings on the use of personal storytelling for personal and collective healing and wellness and as maps for action. But the emphasis will be on story-based art making.
CALL FOR PARTNERSHIPS
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Who are the storytellers
in your community?
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Community Works would love to partner with your organization on a multi-media storytelling project. It takes time to work together to develop a project proposal and identify funding sources. Just give a shout when you want to talk about this rich opportunity. Or just to talk about how storytelling in your community supports individual and collective healing and wellness.
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Story themes from past projects include: Home & Community, Culture & Identity, Our Connection to the Earth, Let Justice Roll, Gender & Identity, The Legacy of Residential Schools, and Our Healing Journey, … or any theme that matters to your community.
Community Works would be pleased to visit your organization and deliver a presentation on our transformative approach to story work.
RECENT EVENTS
Thanks so much to everyone who made it out on a cold evening to Winnipeg’s Cinematheque Theatre on Jan. 13th for a screening/forum on first person digital stories by members of Winnipeg’s diverse cultural community.
Panelists Frances Ravinsky (L) and digital storytellers Hilda Mann, Guillermo Vodniza, Dawn Rolke, Amna Burki & Nilufer Rahman
"At first, I wasn’t sure what to expect ... It turns out the experience ended up being completely touching—sometimes painful, but at the same time warm and beautiful. The fact that every production emerged from a series of workshops accessible to individuals with all levels of experience in video making was just powerful…..It inspired me to keep exploring the internal world that everyone carries and to listen to what everyone has to say." - A.U., audience member
Thank you! This event was made possible through funding from ASSINIBOINE CREDIT UNION.
Helping Children through Grief and Loss​
In November Community Works led a 2-day workshop called "Helping Children Through Grief and Loss", one that we hadn't offered for some time. It was a pleasure to have participants from Mishkosiminiziibiing Anishinaabeg (Big Grassy First Nation) in northwest Ontario, and Opaskwayak Cree Nation and Garden Hill First Nation in Manitoba in the workshop. We're grateful to Mediation Services (Winnipeg) who provided meeting space and kitchen facilities.
"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…”