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Description

How do stories change the way we see our neighbours, and how does sharing them connect us across differences?

This conversation gathers around ordinary memories and messy moments, reflecting on why the stories we tell—and how we tell them—matter for deeper community. From childhood neighbours and community sewing circles to the challenges of communicating care, the voices in this story invite us to step in with humility, listen closely, and notice the sacred in everyday lives.

Time Stamps

06:07 "CarePortal: Connecting Needs Through Stories"

08:51 "Power of Story Through Podcasting"

12:57 "Vulnerability and Seeing Christ"

14:51 "Making Community Work Accessible"

17:53 "Get Curious, Get Involved"

20:55 "Storytelling Through Quality Podcasts"

25:46 "CareCreatives: Stories with Purpose"

28:21 Power of Podcasts for Business

Guest Links

https://carecreativesco.ca

Other Links

Join The CareImpact Podcast Group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1PgzJWfkq9/

Reach out to us! https://neighbourlypodcast.ca

Email: podcast@careimpact.ca

About the CarePortal: careimpact.ca/careportal

DONATE! Help connect and equip more churches across Canada to effectively journey well in community with the most vulnerable: careimpact.ca/donate

When I think of stories, I think of them kind of like welcome

mats. And in Canada, when you go to somebody's door,

you stop at that mat, take off your shoes before

you enter in. And part of that's just good housekeeping. That's just how

Canadians roll. But then it's also like a time

of transition. You're entering into somebody's space,

you're entering into their world, and you share

something in common. That, that moment, you share that time in common.

And I think stories do that for us. They invite us to step

into somebody else's life and we kind of take off our

shoes in humility. There's something sacred about it's their

story to share and to just listen and be present.

What makes a story stick? Not just the facts, not

just the headline, but the moment when you realize there's a real person

behind it. On this podcast, we spend a lot of time

listening to those moments. Stories of neighbors showing up for one

another. Stories that remind us that compassion isn't just an idea.

It's something ordinary people live out every day. But today's

episode is a little bit different. Instead of hearing one story

from a guest, we're pulling back the curtain on something that sits underneath

many of the stories that you hear on Neighborly. How stories are shared,

how they're seen, and why the way we communicate them actually

matters. You'll hear from someone many of you already know, Wendy

Park, the founder of Care/Impact. She's joined by her sister Dorlyn,

who brings years of experience in design and visual storytelling.

And I'll jump in on the conversation as well, because this topic sits right at

the heart of the work I love doing. Together, we'll talk about why

stories have the power to change how we see people, why quality and

creativity matter more than we sometimes realize, and how a new

initiative called CareCreatives Company is hoping to help organizations

share their work in a way that truly connects with community. Because

behind every mission, every organization, and every act

of care, there's a story waiting to be told. So

let's join Shannon at the table.

Good morning, team. Wendy, Johan,

Doraleen, I love getting to start every podcast

episode because I get to hear these cool stories about people's neighbors

So Johan already answered this question way back at the beginning of the season.

So Wendy, growing up, who was a neighbor that you'll never forget?

Uh, when we lived in the countryside, so we didn't have like physical neighbors next

door for the most of my memory, but I think actually one memory

that I have was preschool and my mom was in this thing

called Nefren, uh, which is like a sewing circle. So

the women in the countryside, we were just living outside of, of town.

And they would gather together, I think on weekly, and they would sing and

do some Bible study, but they would sew together. And I just

remember the smell of like cabbage soup and

pistachio pudding and these weird things. But I would sit

under the chair of my mom and just see them doing community.

And that, that's kind of a childhood memory when I think of neighbors.

That's beautiful. Cabbage soup and pistachio pudding. That's quite the

combo. Sounds weird. Actually, I'm repulsed by pistachio

pudding because I overate. This one lady would always bring it and she knew I

liked it and I overate. Yeah. So I won't eat it again.

Dorlyn, how about for you? Who was a neighbor that you'll never forget?

Well, when I think of a neighbor, I mean, growing up out in the country,

like Wendy said, we had a gentleman living, an older gentleman

living beside us. Uh, Mr. Brown was his name. And

he was, I mean, as a child, I, I just saw him

as this nice, friendly, older grandpa kind of man and would love to go

there and he would give us chips. And things like that, and it was kind

of neat. It was only in later years that I realized

that this man was actually struggling with addictions and

broken marriage and things like that. So I didn't see

that as a child. He was always friendly and

would have stuff for us or tell us stories or stuff like that. And so

I just have really good memories of it. But looking back, I realize now he

was a hurting man. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. And

for our listeners that don't know, Wendy and Dorlyn are sisters, so

they both grew up together on the, on the outside of town. Okay, well,

I'm excited to get into this episode today. We're gonna talk

a lot about stories and communication and

sharing about incredible things that are happening and how we can do that

better together. So Wendy, you have

spent years helping churches and communities to care for

families. What have you noticed about how

stories shape the way people respond to needs?

Well, when I think of stories, I think of them kind of like

welcome mats. And in Canada, when you go to somebody's

door, you stop at that mat, take

off your shoes before you enter in. And part of that's just good

housekeeping. That's just how Canadians roll. But then it's also like

a time of transition. You're entering into somebody's space,

you're entering into their world, and you share

something in common that moment. You share that time in common. And

I think stories do that for us. They invite us to step

into somebody else's life, and we kind of take

off our shoes in humility. There's something sacred about

it's their story to share and to just listen and be present.

And so When we do that, I think stories change us.

It changes, it humanizes people from maybe some black

and white thinking to maybe full definition of like,

wow, I didn't realize that. And so, and I think Jesus

is our best example. He led with stories and he's always connected with

people through story. So in what we do with

Care Impact, story is central to everything we

do. Like, like CarePortal, for example, that is very story-based.

And CarePortal's a connecting technology that connects the needs within the

community identified through social services and

frontline serving agencies, working with community members,

particularly the church, but all of community to connect through these stories. And

it's not just a put in a need and here's, there's lots of poverty,

boy, do we need backpacks. It's not that at all. Like those physical

tangible needs are, are met, but it's through

story. So we teach a lot with our social workers that

are coming on that the importance of

storytelling, not to just get just social

justice or too concrete,

to relate to stories. So for example, I could

talk till I'm blue in the face and say, community, we've got a poverty issue

and look at these statistics and all across Canada, We are

facing increasing addictions and homelessness

and all of these things. And on one level, people could

empathize, but if I'm opening up my

CarePortal app and I notice 10 minutes from my house, I

have a notification that there's a refugee widow, let's say

from Iraq, and she's got 6 kids and they're trying to settle in Canada

and young children and they want to make Canada their

home, but they're struggling. And social services has been informed, and

they don't want to pull this family apart, but they have noticed they don't have

beds, they don't have adequate food, they don't have the right adequate

clothing, and the resources that are provided within the system are

inadequate, and mom would like community, and

mom needs this many beds and a few bunk

bed frames. I tell you, when I tell that story,

or when I communicate that with a church, it lands different than

saying, Guys, we gotta do something about poverty. And same thing with CareLabs,

our training. Story is so important. That's why we do

the cope poverty experience. They're living in the life

of a story, an actual story of somebody in

poverty. It's no longer, at the end of that, I guarantee

everyone's not gonna say they should do better or I would do this. They will

have empathy through that. So yeah, story is a huge piece of

all that we do, and it really makes meaningful

connections possible. That's right. Yeah, Wendy, thanks for sharing

that perspective. And like you said, it humanizes people. We

can see ourselves in their story and them in us, whether

our stories are the exact same or not. But we're people, people to people.

Johann, you have helped produce a lot of the stories on this

podcast that people have heard. What is your perspective

on the impact that stories have on listeners?

One thing I wish I had actually done is keep track of how many times

people came up to me and mentioned a story that they heard on the

Neighborly Podcast, formerly Journey with Care, and

said how much it's actually adjusted the way that they view people

and the way that they think. It's amazing that this little

podcast can have such an impact even on a few

individuals. I think just doing that and hearing

that feedback is totally worth it. I know

that's where my love of podcasting came from is I listen to podcasts

and I find myself viewing others differently because of story

and even helping host some of these episodes and hearing all the interviews

and editing them and hearing them over and over again because I'm editing, I

find I'm viewing people differently myself. So it's

really good for me. Like, I love doing the podcast just for my own personal

transformation, but like you said, stories

humanize people, right? So everything Care Impact

does when it comes to compassion, loving our neighbors,

doing Care Portal, like Wendy mentioned, once you put a voice to

a story or a face to that story, it really has way more

impact than just hearing information about an

abstract story that happened somewhere else. So I think story

is huge. Obviously, as a podcast guy, I have a bias, but yeah.

Yeah, that's so good. And you're kind of already really

hitting the core of this about how stories can really

change the way we see people. So I'm curious,

any of you feel free to answer, but for you specifically,

how has hearing stories changed how you see people in

everyday life? When I encounter people on the daily, I

like just hearing some of these neighbor stories, even how we can love our

neighbors differently. I used to maybe just walk by them, like

the story of the Good Samaritan. I'd be the guy that'd walk by, but now,

you know what, I look a little bit longer. There's a story behind that person.

I wonder what that is, because I hear so many stories. It really makes me

want to go deeper and want to engage them a little bit more, and it

just naturally causes me to have compassion on

individuals that I encounter. I can point specifically to

the start of this podcast when it was Journeying with Care. We did a

whole season on reconciliation with the Indigenous peoples and the church.

That really flipped the script on a lot of my thinking on how

we engage with the Indigenous people and how we can relate to them as

the church and really walk alongside them. So that had

a huge impact on even my thinking and

in how I relate to the Indigenous people that I encounter.

Yeah, so good. Wendy, Dorlan, anything you want to add to

that? I think story has

actually informed my faith. There's

been times where I felt disillusioned

with religion and theology. I studied it, and

I— but you get to a point of, so what? At the end of the

day, It's like Jesus loves me and I should love my

neighbor. But what about all those extra things

and the stuff? And I'm not dismissing theology, but I think what

story has done for me and, and just a little bit of context,

I'm a story seeker. I did my undergrad overseas and living in

countries. And when I was doing my master's, I went to the Middle East and

I needed to hear the stories of people rather than just

seeing the headlines on the news because I don't know, I'm just curious. And

I was looking for my purpose and

my meaning in life, not in their stories per se, but they

informed me in how the gospel is still

so true and how it's being lived out. And stories impacted

my perspective and my worldview, and

it's actually brought life to my spiritual self

because there's something sacred when I, whether they're

believers or not, but there's something sacred when you step into their story and

you see see the image of Christ in people. You can't see the

image of Christ on a headline. You can't see an image of Christ

simply by having a good expository

theological sermon, but you can

see the sacredness in others and the image of Christ when

you step into their stories and just see how gracious

God is or how he is showing up in the

lives of others. And so, I don't think it's just a,

we should do storytelling so that we can do good

and make an impact in this world. We should, but it's more personal

than that. I think stories change

us in how we show up with others and be

vulnerable. Like, it's not just, we can't just extract other people's

stories and say, wow, that felt good. Wow, did I see God there?

But now where am I being that vulnerable and letting other people

onto my welcome mat and say, come on in? Sometimes it's

easy to go listen to all the juice out there and say,

wow, this Iraqi woman or this indigenous family coming

out of the residential schools, and we can look for those and

parade them on our stages. But if we're not gonna be vulnerable with our

stories, they challenge me to also welcome people into my

mat, the good and the ugly. Like, my house is messy sometimes,

but I have to welcome them in anyway through that hospitality. And

so sharing my story is just as much part of

my growth as listening too, so it's a

reciprocal thing. Yeah, that's right. And we've talked

a little bit about how stories impact us personally and

a little bit of our, in our roles here at Care Impact. So I want

to take this a step further. When, for you, Wendy, when

we're working with other organizations, what challenges do

you see when it comes to communicating the work that they are doing?

I think in organizations, and I've been in nonprofit even before

founding Care/IMPACT 12, 13 years ago,

I was doing community development work and working deep within

social justice and community development. We can

talk lots in acronyms, we can talk, we can geek out a bit.

It works around the table, like across other

agencies, but we can We start talking in a

way that actually doesn't make community

accessible or the things we do accessible to the everyday public.

And so, I think we need to

carry that heart for community as organizations and for

organizations that I work with and just encourage, how do we make it into a

grade 5 English so that it's accessible for everybody?

That not just those that we serve are the ones that,

are recipients of our care, but we also involve the broader community

into their story, not just as donors, but that they see

themselves in this story. They see themselves into

how the programs are running with them in volunteering and

just being with and creating good community and connection

within community. And so I think we need to create

more accessible language so that people in the

church and people good people down the street, they can

see that organization on that corner more than just a

place they go to a gala dinner and give a donation. And good for you,

I'm so glad that you're helping people off the street, but

they feel like they have a place with that. And

I think that's important. So that language is one thing. A lot

of times we need to do more education in gentle ways

why community needs to be involved and

Obviously, you know that I'm a huge proponent of collective

impact, meaning like getting the whole community involved.

And so, we've got to find those on-ramps so that community

and other sectors and other organizations can

work with us. There is a scarcity mentality, and so we

sometimes want to keep to our own and not share

resources or share intel and stuff. And I love the work you're doing,

Shannon, here in Winnipeg. You're breaking that. You're bringing agency workers together. You're

bringing people into a we mentality instead of us and them.

We're wrestling through how do we better engage the community, and

I think that's a great example of how to work with organizations,

and that's something that Care/Impact is a big fan of.

Yeah, exactly. And something I'd add to that too is that

I think there's organizations and businesses who

want to be communicating what they're doing, but they might just have

a limited capacity or they might be

focused on the good work that they're doing with people on the ground,

but because they're caring for people physically and tangibly, you

know, thinking about storytelling and communicating, that just can't be

a priority or it isn't a priority. Yeah, I would agree with

that. And if you are somebody that wants to

get involved in the community, but you feel like, well, I don't know even

how, or they're too busy to talk to me or something. I think

a neighbor organization that is doing good in your community, get

curious and just approach them. Go to their public function.

Sometimes they have it. Don't wait for an invitation, but find ways to get

curious about how, not coming with an agenda of how you are going to serve

their needs, but get curious, listen and ask, where

is it that you're finding the most challenges? Or what are the opportunities

that you would love community to do? And that's, Simply how

we got involved in Winnipeg, I just kept asking organizations across the

city. So many people here across Winnipeg are doing great things,

but when I ask, what is going above and beyond your work that you would

love if you had trained community, if you had people wanting to

care and you just needed access, what are the things that you would love for

them to do? And that's why CarePortal identifies those things, makes it

very practical and accessible. But, In the

meantime, just get curious and ask how you can get involved with organizations

and get involved with CarePortal.

Yeah, so good. And so I think we're, you know, we're talking about some people

who might want to be getting involved. And I think there are lots

of skill sets and gifts out there

that people maybe don't realize can really make an impact.

So, Dorlan, I'm going to kind of turn things to you. Because

often the first thing that someone encounters isn't a story,

but it's actually something visual, either a website or a logo or

a printed material. Can you share, you know, you have so much

experience in design and graphics and all these different things. Why

does that matter for organizations or just

businesses in the community? Well, the visual

is generally the front door. Often people

will, will look at your website or see something

visual and that's how they'll hear about you. And that's where they'll form their

impression before they ever hear your story. That's where they'll

decide whether they want to hear more of your story, whether they want to hear

more of what you do. It's a front door, basically.

If you have a good presence, let's say with your website,

you have a good presence, people do judge you for that. Whether we like it

or not, but we do judge based on what we see,

based on visuals often. And so it's important for organizations. They

may— organizations, businesses, they may do it, be doing

amazing work. They may be selling an amazing product or

service, but if we don't have that

story, that visual story, you won't be seen.

People won't, won't hear about your good work or how they can get involved with

your organization. Yeah, totally. And

Johan, as someone who's been in the podcast space for a

long time, where does storytelling fit alongside things like

branding or websites? It's been proven

actually that brands that have a story and tell their story

do a lot better than ones that don't. So

like I have a side business where I do podcasting and obviously I do that

with care. Impact, and we'll talk about how we're

adding a service that we can do it for other businesses as well.

But I've worked with small businesses and a few

larger ones, and it's not only important for them to tell

their stories through a podcast because podcast

has very intimate listeners. Like, they have much

better rates than even YouTube going on video.

Listeners tend to stick on a lot longer, and they It's

actually more intimate because it's right in your ear. It's usually when

you're doing something like a chore or something, so you're less

distracted by other visuals. It's one thing to

just tell your story on a podcast, but to do it with quality is really

important because there's so much competition out there because everybody's telling

their stories. Technology is getting better and easier to

sound better and look better. So the ones that

are sticking out are the ones that actually sound really good, which is why I

make it like my mission to make us sound the best we can, to

put out the stories the best we can. Because if people want

to get vulnerable and tell their stories, we want to do it justice as well.

We want to make sure that it sounds good, comes out clear so that the

message is clear. I actually just yesterday

dropped a podcast. They have good content, but I

just couldn't handle the sound and not a judgment

on their content or the person behind the voice.

The voice behind the podcast, but my ears couldn't

handle it. It was, it was like static in my ears. And, and

actually statistics show if you don't have good sound, you're gonna defeat the message. It's

like Doraleen, if you don't have good visuals, people will judge you and, and not

look further into the good work you do. So sound actually matters

and you're, you're gonna drop people if you don't do it well. Um, and

Johan, you've given me an appreciation for that, but my ears know

good sound. Yeah, such a good point, you guys, that

the quality and the audio and what we're hearing and we're seeing really

matters. And Johan, you already hinted at this.

Wendy, can you share about how the lead-up process into

noticing that there's organizations out there in Canada doing

meaningful work but are lacking in that creative

infrastructure? And tell us a little bit how that birthed CareCreatives

Company. Ooh, yeah. Well, and it actually birthed Care

Impact itself. I loved the work I was doing before Care

Impact, but what got me to quit my job and travel

across this country looking for what is happening across our

country, across our cities, where are networks forming, is because we

need to do things better together. There's a lot of siloed activities and

there's a lot of good things happening, but in disjointed

activity. It's actually very inefficient and we

can actually create systemic change and go upstream

and reverse the poverty cycles and, and

things. We can do these one-off things. So tell us, how did

this birth CareCreatives? How did CareCreatives company take shape?

So we've developed infrastructure for Canada. We're still

at an early stage, beta stage. It's ready to expand now.

For care portal technology, for connecting technology,

just like Uber. We're ready to grow. And CareLabs,

we have a way to bring meaningful training across this country

so that these organizations that are often working in

isolation can get connected, can get the information so

that churches can get equipped for good works together.

Not just talk about working together, but this is how good

working together looks like and how we can do it in

practicality. So while podcasting has

been an effective means for us to connect with Canada,

we want to showcase beautiful things that other

organizations are doing, and not just philanthropy

or ministries. Those are important, and we want to

serve you in good podcasting. It does make a difference,

but also in the marketplace.. There's marketplace leaders

that want to do social good. They have stories to share. It's

not just like rising up in capitalism and trying to get rich.

They have kingdom mindsets, and we want your stories heard as

well. And, and visually as well, we want your websites to look good

so that we can help connect you into

the broader community. We want visually to have

good business cards and because business cards make connections

and those little things matter. And so the CareCreatives company

really is a social enterprise so we can compete with the best of them. I,

I will testify cuz Johan and Dorlan will be too humble, but they have over

30 years of professional experience in audio and visual

and websites and, and things like that. They have been doing it in the marketplace

and now we are creating this company so that people can

get the same services that you would get in a

for-profit But all of the proceeds, all of the what is being paid

for professional services actually goes back into the community. So

by getting your stories out there, by getting your needs met, you're paying for it

anyway through for-profit companies. We can do it, but get

your stories told. And while you're doing it, support

more community connections in the other things we're doing with CarePortal

and the Care Lab. So it's kind of a win-win. It's not

just for the social enterprise money. We want

marketplace and ministry leaders, people in

government to be able to be good storytellers because stories

connect, stories humanize you, and we wanna know who you

are beyond your logo, but we can build your logo

too. Yeah. So good. Johan and Dorlan, I'd love to

hear, as, as you are gonna be two people really leading this company,

this aspect of Care Impact, what excites you most about

getting to help people share their work more clearly, whether that's

through audio production or whether that's through print

products or website design? Tell us what excites

you. From my experience, like I've been in, in business, in,

in marketing, design, website, that kind of stuff for quite a

while. What excites me is seeing the

confidence that a good brand, a good logo,

a good website gives people. And it's so

often, you just see their eyes light up and they're proud to

show what they do. It just brings them a confidence,

a credibility that people see out from the outside when they look at

their website, when they look at your branding. And branding isn't just a logo.

It's How do I feel when I see

your workplace? Or how do I feel when I go to your website

or when I talk to you on the phone? That's all

brand, the feel. And if we can help you build that, it just

brings out a confidence in the owner, in the workers,

and it's a beautiful thing to see. That's always been a highlight for me, to

bring confidence to people. That's beautiful. How about for you,

Johan? I love giving businesses a platform to actually be thought leaders

in their field. And that happens so often when businesses start a

podcast. In fact, I've lost some clients because they've grown out of the podcast

and ended up doing like TED Talks and TV shows

instead because the podcast has helped their business grow. It's not

always good for me, but it's good for them. But it excites me

that there are so many good stories and organizations doing good things,

but there's no way of people knowing what they're doing

unless they're telling the stories. And the thing is, like, with podcasting

now, these things are starting to be able to get searched through Google

searches and stuff because we're adding transcripts to all the

platforms now. So when you search something, Google's going to find the answer through

that transcript on the podcast. So it's becoming even more important

than ever before because when people go to a website now, there's so

many podcasts out there, people expect to see a podcast on

your website. Like it's, it's almost something every business needs to

have nowadays to stand out from the other businesses around them and be

thought leaders in their areas. So it excites me to see businesses

grow and do well and new stories, especially local ones,

Canadian stories get told. Yeah,

absolutely. And there's just, there's so much out there. Like you said,

there's so many incredible

organizations, businesses, I think of small family-owned

businesses that have a heart for community or just have a heart to

provide a quality craft or service.

And those things need to be shared. And I think there's so much

learning, like we've talked about, shared learning and opening up of

our perspectives when we get to see those

stories amplified. And when we do good audio, when we do

good visual, when we do good storytelling through all

our senses, That is a way of spreading Good News

that we often underestimate. They may not be open

to hearing the Gospel and what your core convictions, as

important as that is, but they will be drawn

in by the hope that you have and the stories that you share that are

hope-filled. We have enough headlines out there that ground us

with reality of war and desperation

and people in disunity, we need good

stories. That's the antidote to a lot of the bad out there is to

actually produce more good stories and to do it with excellence.

And we can do that through CARE Creatives

Company is help you tell good stories and be good in your

community. The stories we share here remind us that care does not have to be

perfect to be powerful. It just has to be present. Neighborly

is an initiative of Care Impact, a Canadian charity equipping

churches, agencies, and communities with technology and training to care

better together. This episode was produced by CareCreatives

Co., a social enterprise of Care Impact. If you're building a podcast and want

help with strategy, editing, or full production,

visit carecreativesco.ca to connect with

us. I'm Johan. Thanks for listening, and keep being the kind of

neighbor someone will never forget— in a good

way. Being a stranger, I'm

no longer a stranger.

Turning over tables, tearing

down walls, building up the

bridges between the souls of

this journey.