Communities, Stories and Practices
“Alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much” – Helen Keller
CSP’s mission statement:
To build empowering communities by creating, raising, and spreading awareness about what stories in our minds are, and their impact on our well-being.
Why Communities, Stories and Practices?
As we wade through history - humans have always sought belonging and safety through communities. Being a human means that we are constantly interacting with people and places - and these communities have a certain culture that brings them together. These communities hold the very fabric of our perception as human beings. These were more often than not defined by a common place or defined geography. The stories we are told about cultures become deeply embedded in us - myths and legends are the lens through which the basis of culture is established. In a way, the stories that we tell ourselves are also derived from our communities. Practices inscribed in culture become very second nature, we sometimes don’t even realise we are doing something from muscle memory of culture having tuned us into it. These stories and practices that these communities embedded in us are the schemas of our thoughts, beliefs, and actions. The natural course of history also established humans as one superior to the other, one better than the other, with good and bad cultures - this had repercussions of many communities retaliating to uphold their communities’ identity. Repercussions came in many forms - wars, genocides, discrimination based on sex, creed, race, religion etc.
The advent of globalization and the internet then brought about a radical shift in the type of communities we interact with. Suddenly we had access to communities that we probably would not even ever meet physically - but we could hear those stories, find a connection with them, pay those stories forward, follow their practices and be a part of that community in ways that we never belonged to before. This also changed something fundamental about communities - there is a scope where people are realizing that the communities they are born into are not always empowering them to become a better version of themselves. They are exploring what is relevant and not, and seeking communities that will accept them and where they can find the belonging that is not offered in their roots. The path however has been, and continues to be met with resistance to change, and a lack of empathy. This creates a great cost— growth.
But, this doesn’t have to always hold. The opposite of something begets similar problems. There could be a better way. How many of us chose these communities willingly? How many of us have a choice to explore them, question them, leave them or attach ourselves to different communities? How many of us are told the origins of the stories and practices of our communities? Why are we protecting cultures and communities through sticking to age old stories? How many of us ask “Why” through wonder and curiosity? Where are our communities heading towards? Are we creating newer communities by being aware of the stories and practices that are conditioned into us? How can we recondition ourselves into more empowering spaces?
Communities, Stories and Practices (CSP), is an SM Mission through which children are exploring the depths of human connection - with self and the outside world - and it is not enough to settle with what is given. Mission CSP is on a quest to wonder, question, explore, empathize, innovate and create pathways and products to better experience our communities, be aware of ourselves and build empowering stories. and practices in our daily lives.
OUR JOURNEY SO FAR
October 2021
Now that CSP has officially kickstarted, how can we learn more about the Communities, Stories and Practices of our own community? Could that be influences?’ So we explored.
How? We created a survey and sent it out to our community. We got to know what most of our community members are aware that they tell themselves stories.
Then we asked ourselves, how about us? Do well tell ourselves stories? How do we know for sure? What are the different practices that we have? What kinds of stories do we tell ourselves? To know these, we created another survey, and filled them out ourselves for 15 days. We then had masterclasses on how to interpret those results
How? We created a survey and sent it out to our community. We got to know what most of our community members are aware that they tell themselves stories.
Then we asked ourselves, how about us? Do well tell ourselves stories? How do we know for sure? What are the different practices that we have? What kinds of stories do we tell ourselves? To know these, we created another survey, and filled them out ourselves for 15 days. We then had masterclasses on how to interpret those results
November 2021
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Then it was time to wonder. What more do we want to know about C,S and P? What does it all really mean to us? Together we put our heads together and arrived at many wonder questions.
In our attempt to understand and dig deep, we had masterclasses on how to start researching on our own, what are the safety measure we need to take, how to get the most out of our research |
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December 2021
All this research needed to go somewhere. So we had masterclasses on how use Canva and channel our findings using Infographics templates! Here are a few of our explorations and trials after oh, so many errors!
Using all the information, knowledge and skills we acquired, we presented our findings on Canva during the Experiential Open Day!
Using all the information, knowledge and skills we acquired, we presented our findings on Canva during the Experiential Open Day!
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Jan - Mar 2022
Post January, the children built on their exploration of Communities, Stories and Practices to arrive at "How might we create a safe and happy space in school?"
Ideas that emerged were:
1. Having an empowerment committee that works on inspiring people by curating material
2. Interviewing the community on their awareness of their practices
3. Asking children what a safe space looks like for them and curating those experiences.
They worked on curating Inspiration for the school! Watch the video below:
Ideas that emerged were:
1. Having an empowerment committee that works on inspiring people by curating material
2. Interviewing the community on their awareness of their practices
3. Asking children what a safe space looks like for them and curating those experiences.
They worked on curating Inspiration for the school! Watch the video below:
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They also wrote acrostic poems about what words connected to the school when they said "Safe."
June - August 2022
Playground Toolkit kickstarting as part of creating safe, empowering and joyous space around
September - December 2022
Breaking down stories - stereotypes in superheroes and fairytales
Poetry (add a line or two from one of their poems that stands out)
Stalls in collaboration with publishers curating empowering stories - photos - like a collage (to create)
Tools