Barbara wrote this story about her progression as a mother and community leader in her housing development, Villa Victoria in the South End of Boston. She started the workshop as the host with great hesitation about actually having a story about herself. Her modesty about her standing within the Villa Victoria community was challenged by her fellow IBA co-workers. Slowly her story emerged about the choices she made as a resident, neighbor, mother, and eventually her nickname as the "Mayor of the Villa." Barbara runs the tech center where the workshop was held, but she had very little experience creating any multimedia presentations. This is a great story as an example of real voice coming through in both the script and the audio narration.
Created during the MassIMPACT Spreading the Stories train-the-trainer workshop at the Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA) and the El Batey Technology Center of the Villa Victoria housing development(May 2007), this story was a part of an effort to bring together staff from community organizations in the South End of Boston and create inter-community connections and fellowship. While the stories in this workshop varied from very personal to place or work based, each participant brought personal touches to each other's stories in the Story Circle and throughout the creation process. [For more info on this workshop, check out Danielle Martin's CTC VISTA blog.]
