From Heart Parent to DST Facilitator: Stories of Advocacy
Digital storytelling has emerged as a powerful medium for self-expression, advocacy, and healing, particularly within healthcare communities. In a recent episode of Co-Created, host Kristy Wolfe welcomed back Jen Siran, who has transformed from storyteller to facilitator in the two years since her first appearance on the podcast. Jen's journey exemplifies how personal narratives can evolve into impactful advocacy tools that bridge communication gaps between patients, caregivers, and medical professionals.
Jen's initial digital story, Day One, chronicled her experience as a parent of a child with congenital heart disease. That story became a catalyst for deeper involvement with digital storytelling, eventually leading to her becoming a certified facilitator with Common Language Digital Storytelling. Her persistence in seeking funding for storytelling projects, despite multiple rejections, demonstrates the tenacity often required when pursuing passion projects in healthcare advocacy. "It was something that was so close to my heart I wasn't willing to give up on it," Jen explained, describing how funding eventually came through as a "midnight saving grace" after multiple attempts.
Check out Jen’s Caregiver’s Corner project here.
The conversation highlighted how digital storytelling creates unique spaces for reflection and revelation. Jen described the fascinating process of watching storytellers discover deeper meanings in their experiences: "When we tell a story about life, we do a very surface sort of telling and there's often deeper narratives that are fueling that story deep within." This transformative quality makes digital storytelling particularly valuable in healthcare contexts, where patients and families often struggle to articulate complex emotional experiences while medical professionals may miss the human impact of clinical decisions. As Jen noted, showing her story to both parents and medical staff yielded different insights for each audience, creating bridges of understanding.
Perhaps most compelling was Jen's description of the multilayered experience of creating a digital story. "People are thinking about a story, they're telling a story, they're putting pictures to that story, they're putting music and sound to that story," she explained. "They're thinking about how long they want a picture to last, how long they want someone to linger on even just an image... it's helping them see this story that they are creating from a different perspective over and over again." This immersive process creates what Jen beautifully described as unwrapping a gift, with "every layer bringing a new level of excitement."
Episode 42 Key Messages
0:00 The Gift of Digital Storytelling
3:19 Jen's Journey Since Day One
7:52 Caregiver's Corner: Supporting Heart Families
12:32 Facilitating Anonymous Stories
17:11 Personal Legacy Stories
20:41 Healthcare Stories: Bridging Communication Gaps
24:51 Closing Thoughts and Future Projects
The conversation also explored the diverse applications of digital storytelling—from public advocacy projects like Jen's Caregiver's Corner initiative (which includes three digital stories accessible through the Western Canadian Children's Heart Network) to more intimate legacy projects capturing family stories. Jen expressed particular excitement about recording her elderly parents' stories: "To take that moment and that opportunity to actually ask each one of them about a defining moment in their life and to pull that apart with them, and then I have their voice encapsulated for all of time telling me a story—that's beyond gold." This sentiment resonates with many who recognize the value of preserving family narratives across generations.
About Our Guest
Jen Siran is a storyteller, advocate, and encourager at heart. Her journey as a mom and caregiver has shaped her passion for creating spaces where others feel seen, supported, and less alone. She’s known for weaving stories that bring hope, laughter, and connection—sometimes even managing to laugh at the chaos of everyday life (because if you don’t laugh, you might just cry). Jen believes deeply in the power of community, faith, and gentle support along life’s hardest paths. When she’s not writing or championing caregivers, you’ll likely find her wrangling family schedules, chasing creative ideas, or trying (and occasionally failing) to drink her coffee before it gets cold.
About Co-Created
Co-Created is a podcast that takes you behind the scenes of digital storytelling. On each episode, host Kristy Wolfe dives into conversations with the storytellers and facilitators who bring digital stories to life.
If this particular conversation resonated with you, tell a friend or a colleague about Co-Created or share one of the digital stories we were talking about. You can find the stories here.
Co-Created is presented by Common Language DST, digital storytelling facilitation training for health and wellness changemakers and is supported by the team at Snack Labs.
