Bridging Lived Experience, Storytelling & Advocacy
tories are bridges. They carry feeling, context, and meaning across the gaps that data leaves behind. Together with Fabiana Bacchini host of the Canadian Premature Babies Foundation’s Preemie Chats, we explore how digital storytelling turns lived experience from NICU and congenital heart disease into education, advocacy, and healing. Kristy Wolfe, a preemie parent, digital storytelling facilitator, and host of Co-Created shares a deeply personal bedtime ritual that grounds her family’s coping. Simple questions like “What was the best part of your day?” and “What are you grateful for?” become anchors against fear, uncertainty, and the ongoing realities of cardiology appointments and future surgeries. This everyday practice shows how language, curiosity, and presence can shape resilience for caregivers and kids alike.
From Grief to Community: Crafting Meaning After Loss
Grief often arrives without language, stealing both breath and words. That’s why digital storytelling can feel like a handrail in the dark: a short, crafted film pairing voice, images, and music to hold a moment that’s too heavy to carry alone. In this conversation, we explore how a mother, Gillian Hatto, faced the sudden death of her infant Hazel and later the loss of Lily, then found connection through SIDS Calgary Society and ultimately founded Hazel’s Heroes, a nonprofit retreat for bereaved parents.
Story Slam 2026: Where Stories Build Connection
Digital storytelling sits at the crossroads of care, community, and change. In this conversation, we explore how short, voice-led films made with a facilitator help people name hard truths, honour family, and translate experience into practical wisdom. Mike Lang shares recent workshops with young caregivers of parents who had ALS, head and neck cancer patients in Alberta, and young adults living with brain tumours. Each project centres lived experience, turning private struggles into public resources that reduce isolation and spark action. Listeners hear why facilitators value both the stories and the culture that forms when organizations return year after year to create and share them.
Amplifying the Caregiver’s Voice
The process was both healing and empowering. It gave shape to experiences that are often invisible or minimized, and it provided a platform to share those realities in a way that resonates deeply with both families and professionals.
Framing the Narrative: Evolution of a Storyteller
Digital storytelling has emerged as a powerful medium for personal expression and community building, as demonstrated by Heather Alicia Knox's remarkable journey. After dedicating 30 years to nonprofit work, including co-founding Project Somos Children's Learning Village in Guatemala, Heather has transformed her passion for helping others into a multifaceted storytelling practice in Ajijic, Mexico. Her evolution as a facilitator offers valuable insights into how digital storytelling can create meaningful connections across different communities and contexts.
A Ripple Effect, Digital Storytelling Connects SIDS Families
The workshop process was highly effective in helping parents who had lost a child to SIDS deepen their healing. The feedback from parents was overwhelmingly positive, with one parent saying, “I’ve done 15 years of grief work and I’ve never experienced something like this.”
Side by Side: Siblings, Disability & Peer Support
Siblings often stand in the background of disability narratives, visible yet rarely centred, present yet seldom asked how the system looks and feels from their vantage point. This conversation with Dr. Linda Nguyen and Samantha Bellefeuille places sibling experience at the core and follows it all the way through the mechanics of research, the ethics of sharing, and the practice of digital storytelling as both a personal process and a public-facing tool.
From Heart Parent to DST Facilitator: Stories of Advocacy
Two years after sharing her first digital story about parenting a child with congenital heart disease, Jen Siran returns to the podcast having transformed from storyteller to facilitator. Her journey exemplifies the ripple effects that personal narratives can create; from publishing a book to securing grant funding (after multiple attempts) to developing Caregiver's Corner, a resource hub featuring digital stories for heart families across Western Canada.
Finding Art: A Life Well Lived
In a world where we often shy away from difficult conversations, "Co-Created" brings us face-to-face with the power of embracing life's most challenging moments through digital storytelling. Host Kristy Wolfe welcomes Dr. Tom Lee, a retired engineering professor with a terminal cancer diagnosis who has transformed his experience into art, community building, and storytelling.
The Friends We Meet - Jasper Municipality Newcomers Project
Miguel tells the story of his move from Mexico to Jasper, Alberta, in the middle of winter to work in the hospitality industry. He shares how the unexpected challenges of seasonal work and housing instability impacted his mental health, and also led him to a new career with a deeper sense of belonging.
Go Deeper With Life Stories
Dr. Flora Brown, a seasoned Guided Autobiography Facilitator and life story coach, knows firsthand the transformative power of sharing our stories. Through the collaborative process of co-creating a digital story with CLDST facilitator Lisa Joworski, Flora discovered three profound benefits that extended far beyond simply adapting her story to a new format.
Cultivating a Deeper Understanding of Culturally Relevant Care
By pairing digital storytelling with reflective conversation, the eLearning module aims to integrate empathetic learning with the pillars of Patient Experience Excellence. This learning structure gives healthcare providers the opportunity to cultivate a deeper understanding of the human health experience that will lead to practical wisdom and increased value for patients.
Every Business Starts With a Story That Matters
Digital stories have the power to transform our personal narratives into professional purpose. In our recent podcast episode of Co-Created, mindfulness teacher and keynote speaker Trish Tutton demonstrates this transformation beautifully as she shares how her digital storytelling journey became an essential communication tool for her business.
A Local Approach Brings Digital Storytelling To Uganda
To build a sustainable global digital storytelling initiative in Uganda, this project focuses on amplifying local voices and empowering a regional facilitator team with an entrepreneurial mindset. Uganda is one of the first international digital storytelling facilitation projects that CLDST has developed.
Facilitation in Action: DST Training Meets Advocacy
Our Co-Created conversation features Katlyn Lamont, a newly trained Common Language digital storytelling facilitator who works as a registered psychotherapist with a youth addictions agency. Her journey into digital storytelling began somewhat unexpectedly – she was offered a last-minute spot in a training workshop and found herself reconnecting with her high school media production skills. What's remarkable about Katlyn's experience is how quickly she discovered the transformative potential of this medium, both for herself and her community.
Mind Mission: Military Families & Mental Health
The transformative power of digital storytelling shines brightly in this compelling conversation with Laryssa Lamrock, a proud veteran family member who works as the National Strategic Advisor for Families at the Atlas Institute for Veterans and Families. Her journey illuminates how personal narratives can become powerful tools for healing, advocacy, and community building within military and veteran communities struggling with mental health challenges.
Disrupting Death: Stories of MAiD
Recently, the intersection of digital storytelling and Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) has emerged as a powerful space for healing, education, and advocacy. This innovative approach spearheaded by eri-Lyn Durant and Dr. Kathy Kortes-Miller hosts of the Disrupting Death podcast provided individuals who have accompanied loved ones through the MAID process with an opportunity to process grief, share experiences, and contribute to a broader understanding of end-of-life care choices.
Beyond Discharge: Stories from the NICU
The transformative power of digital storytelling in healthcare advocacy was beautifully illustrated in our recent Co-Created conversation with Fabiana Bacchini, Executive Director of the Canadian Premature Babies Foundation. As a journalist-turned-advocate with her own experience in the NICU, Fabiana brings a unique perspective on how personal narratives can reshape healthcare practices, research priorities, and community understanding.
Bringing Youth Together Through Stories of Cannabis Harm Reduction
In the Spring of 2024, nine young adults from across Canada gathered in person for a Digital Storytelling Workshop to craft short films exploring their experiences with cannabis use in connection to the harm reduction principles. This in-person workshop reminded us of the power of bringing people together. It communicated a value for the storytellers and their personal experiences. You matter, and your story matters.
Together, We Brought The First Common Language Story Slam To Life!
The 2025 Common Language Story Slam brought together diverse communities for a one-day festival with inspiring stories and conversation, highlighting the potential of digital storytelling with non-profits.
It was also the first time the Common Language Facilitators Collective has come together to share the breadth of work that is making an impact by elevating individual and collective voices.