Tags: Community Development

I'm interested in digital story telling so people can use their own words to tell their stories about their lives, their communities, their hopes and dreams.  I work from a community development framework - and am interested particularly in people having a voice in how our local economies are built and how people can participate in cultural change rather than just be a passive audience to the global cultural machine! 

My Name is Tanya Rowden-Tiago. I am the Founder of Visible Creations. Visible Creations is a medium for creating empowerment, awareness and to put forth the momentum for change within our society. We focus on community based environments. Our structure is through community development and empowerment.
Our passion is to generate awareness through creating an ongoing education & training tool. Our mantra is 'Antyhing is Possible'. I love what 'Stories for change' stands for. I am loving the opportunity to work within this empowering process. What you produce is incredibly inspiring.

As part of the new ARIZONA field office for the Center for Digital Storytelling, I teach custom workshops for a variety of non-profit and educational organizations working in health and human services, community development, arts, environment, youth, immigration, international/intercultural education, etc. I've been teaching with CDS for almost 3 years now, and love the work that I do and the people who invite me into their stories through this process.

My undergraduate degrees from Vanderbilt University in Literature and in Communication, my MA in Humanities/Intercultural Communication, and my background as an artist, an educator, a community builder and a life-long appreciator of story have all served me in this work.

I'm passionate about people and their stories, building community, education, strengthening intercultural communication, food and culture, the arts, history, international experiential learning, service that heals, hospitality to the stranger, improving my Spanish, helping people use their gifts and strengths to contribute to their communities and the world, listening, creating, bridging, encouraging and participatory communication for change!

I was the original Project Manager for the StoriesForChange.net site and now a recent graduate of at MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Master in City Planning program. From 2005-7, I served second year VISTA Leader at the CTC VISTA Project and program coordinator and trainer at massIMPACT. My goals include supporting two online collaborative social networks (the CTC VISTAs resource portal on CTCVISTA.org and [THIS SITE], a community digital storytelling facilitators on StoresforChange.net), conducting train-the-trainer digital storytelling workshops for massIMPACT’s Spreading the Stories program, and working to bring new programs and collaborations to technology centers in MassHousing technology and community centers. In 2005-6, I served the Community Technology & Media Program at UMass Boston, as a curriculum and resource coordinator as well as the Assistant Editor of the Community Technology Review and the Project’s newsletter, the Digest. Additionally, I researched media policy as part of the Tactical Media group and conducted several digital storytelling trainings for both adults and youth. Previously, I was the Technology Director at the Charlestown Boys & Girls Club (MA) Computer Clubhouse and a MIT Media Lab IDEAS Institute Fellow. My background is in after-school multimedia programs for youth, instructional design for web-based trainings, and fundraising and development.