Project Citizenship: Power of story to inspire change

Written By Ben Weinlick

Project Citizenship: People with disabilities and their stories of engaged citizenship is about enhancing the experience of citizenship for people with disabilities, and raising awareness in the greater community about the valuable contributions they make.

Project Citizenship

www.projectcitizenship.com

This is an inspiring social change initiative that intersects art, story telling, creativity, change leadership, and social services.

It's a two year grant partnership between the University of Alberta Community Service-Learning program, SKILLS Society and Nina Haggerty Center for the Arts. Think Jar Collective members Ben Weinlick and Debbie Reid are the leads on the project.

So far over 28 stories of citizenship have been documented by U of A students and SKILLS Society staff.  U of A researchers are also looking at the impact the project is having on services provided by SKILLS Society, on organizational change and on the greater community.

Part of how ideas and new thinking for supporting the citizenship of people with disabilities has been generated has been through the many think tanks SKILLS Society has hosted.  Inspired by Design thinking and the deep dive process IDEO uses, SKILLS Society staff have actively engaged and explored new processes for generating ideas  to connect people they support with an increased experience of being valued as citizens.  More on the creative process SKILLS' uses can be found in this article. 

A highlight from year one of the project was the Art show of the project at the SNAP gallery in Edmonton Alberta

Check out Andrew's story below for an example of an outcome from the project

Video about Project Citizenship

Ben Weinlick

Ben Weinlick is the founder of Think Jar Collective.

Currently Ben is also the Executive Director of Skills Society. Skills Society is one of largest and most innovative social service organizations in Canada. Stewarding an amazing collective of 500 employee, and a 25 million a year budget, Skills Society has a long and unique history related to social innovation and systems change around the rights and inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities. Ben and colleagues of Skills are known internationally for quality human centered services and creating tangible social innovations. Before becoming Executive Director in 2019, Ben stewarded Social Innovation Research & Development through an innovation lab he helped launch in 2015 called the Action Lab. The Action Lab focuses on systems change and innovation around some of the most wicked and entangled problems that humans are facing today. He is also the co-founder of MyCompass Planning which is on a mission to humanize social service case management systems where people served are centered in shaping their support services.

As the founder of Think Jar Collective and his expertise in disciplined innovation culture and methods, he regularly is asked by Universities, Businesses, Governments, and Non-Profits to help grow capacity to problem solve better and in more holistic ways. He offers keynotes on human centered service design thinking, social innovation labs and the tools and culture of disciplined innovation. Along the way striving to nudge positive systems change over the last 20+ years, he has had stellar mentors and colleagues that he shares credit with for accomplishments and awards.

He is deeply driven by the desire to help people, organizations and community to get better at navigating complex challenges together.

https://www.thinkjarcollective.com
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