Childhood, Interrupted - Stories of Survival from Canada's Childcare System

This show stands as proof of practice for community-based live journalism that decenters power through storytelling. My research and practice philosophy focus on questions of building trust with community through my live journalism studio, stitched! How can we build a new (to journalism) language and approach to reporting and build more authentic relationships that lead to more connected journalism?

Childhood, Interrupted is a product of a classroom collaboration, in which students apply a trauma-informed, solidarity journalism approach (Georgeson, Xiiem, Smith, Verma) to reporting out the story (April 2024). Some students and alumni continued that engagement for a later show (July 2024). A community gatherer, also a journalist, brings the storylisteners into the story, driven by a question: What are the experiences of children in Canada’s child welfare system, and what can we do to change it?

Overall, my pedagogical approach is informed by centring community and care. In it, students become “active agents” (Freire) in the classroom, and a culture of hope is instilled where self-led knowledge becomes power (Freire, hooks). Ultimately, the goal is to create a sense of hope. To do so, we apply a decolonial framework in adapting live journalism, which is rooted in the study of storywork research methodologies (Archibald/Xiiem, Kovach, Smith), and apply these to a community-based storytelling space.

Through it, we hope to build a parallel practice of ethics and care for journalists. In Childhood, Interrupted, for instance, we investigate the system by centring the lived expertise of those who have been harmed by it. In so doing, we also raise calls to action, rooted in journalistic research, to give our storylisteners a direction for their actions once they have heard these stories. Ultimately, we participate in and build community-based collaborative journalism centred on a philosophy of hope and a recognition of power.