What was the initiative?

Since 2001, Communitas volunteers and formerly/currently incarcerated men have gathered every Tuesday evening in Montreal to watch presentations and socialize at an evening called “Open Door”. Open Door presentations range from community members presenting on their hobbies or hometowns to “experts” and professionals speaking about their fields of interest. The goal of Open Door is to support people in their process of reintegrating from prison by providing a non-judgmental space and a network of supportive community members. For her Pathy project, Michela joined a group of Communitas volunteers to document 20 years of work in a book. Together, they gathered a list of everyone who has previously been involved in Communitas, assigned and conducted interviews, and self-published a book recounting the history of the organization’s efforts.

What was the community connection?

Prior to the Fellowship, Michaela volunteered with Communitas Montreal. As a volunteer, she conducted a digital literacy workshop, and participated in other volunteer activities. Throughout the Fellowship, her relationship to Communitas deepened through hearing, exploring, documenting, and sharing the history of the organization and the different perspectives on what made the space effective and welcoming to participants.

How was it innovative?

The self-published book upholds a tradition of intentional, organized, and dedicated relationship-building. Over the course of the Fellowship year, Michaela and Communitas members interviewed over 150 people who had varying degrees of interaction and participation with Communitas programming. Through the interviews, Michaela and Communitas were able to document the impact of Open Door, and how participants benefited from the events. The project was featured on multiple news platforms. Additionally, the book was sold on a pay-what-you-can basis, reducing barriers to accessing the resource, and acted as a fundraising effort for the sustainable operations of the organization.

What is Michaela doing now?

Following the Fellowship, Michaela worked as a camp counsellor with her cohort member’s farm school initiative. She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in data science and information policy studies at the University of Toronto.