Carine Valleau – Stories For Humanity

Carine talks about rebuilding a sense of community with a grassroots approach, and how there’s value in making something beautiful. 🔖👋

I met Carine at a cafĂ© in CĂŽte-des-Neiges to talk about her project after someone sent her my way. “Stories For Humanity” and “Quest For Inspiration”, I get it!

What’s her project all about?

Stories For Humanity is a “convergent media society” that tackles complex topics from a bottom-up, human point of view. Every edition revolves around one topic and takes the shape of conferences, workshops and a curated publication.

Where did the inspiration come from?

“When I was little, I was always surprised that people could harm each other. Since then, I’d always had the belief that, as humans, we could help each other, to make things better. It may be a bit naive, but that’s how I think. That’s one of the things that got me started.

A few years back, I began actively observing a disconnect that has formed in our society, between ‘individuals’ and ‘society’. Up until 30-40 years ago, we had these very strong community groups, be it religious, civic, sporting, etc. We’d get to know people that were different, and we’d be exposed to a varied range of opinions. We’ve since lost the connection that comes with these groups, and the trend today is to focus inward, as we can see with the rise of self-help books, individual meditation and increased individualism.

I wanted to bring back that sense of community discussion, of those groups, by breaking the wall between the ‘individual’ and ‘society’.” That led me to a pilot project in 2012 on le Printemps Ă©rable, which included conferences, print and workshops. It’s a model we’ve worked on since.”

What’s been difficult?

“Scaling has been a challenge – growing and managing an increasing number of staff. How do you keep the proximity, the culture you’ve built when you go from two people to twenty? And as you expand, it’s not as easy to meet, talk face-to-face, especially without an office or dedicated workspace. It’s one of the reasons we’re looking to settle into a space in the coming months.

Expanding our reach is another aspect we’re working on. Our natural audience, if you will, is typically composed of progressives. But if we only stay within this circle, we haven’t fully realised our mandate of fomenting exchange across different social groups.”

What are some of the lessons you’ve learned?

“There’s value in making something that’s beautiful, that’s something I’ve learned with our publication. Make less, do it well, and don’t be afraid to change.

Start local before going global. We were very ambitious with our Refugees topic, and I had a vision of this international movement right from the start for Stories For Humanity. But it’s hard to get traction if you’re not on the ground. So the lesson was ‘get local traction’, then use that to launch yourself towards a more global discussion. We’re developing workshops and conferences all around the globe for one of our next topics, and this time we’ll be sure to physically be there to help spread our message and methods.”

Wow, sounds cool. Good luck with the travels and with the project!

“Thanks! Come down to the launch for our #SantĂ©QCHealth project launch this fall!”

To learn more on Stories For Humanity, visit their website and Facebook page.