Meet 25 Community Members Supporting Local Storytelling: TELUS Local Content Community Advisory Boards

Hello! My name is Emily Weldon, I am a Marketing Specialist on the TELUS Local Content team, supporting speciality marketing, program and community engagement projects for TELUS STORYHIVE and TELUS originals. 

One of the things I am the most proud of within our work is how we hold ourselves to our mandate of supporting authentically local stories and providing dedicated support for locally-reflective, locally-resonant screen-based storytelling. 

Local stories are vital to thriving media landscapes and vibrant communities. Watching local people, places and perspectives on your screen builds affinity and pride for your home, it makes you feel connected to your local community, and it encourages you to venture out into where you live and get actively involved there, however that may feel best for you. Learning about untold or underrepresented narratives can shift held beliefs and ignite change within your community, change that starts close to home and has a far reaching impact beyond local screens.

This is also why the Community Advisory Boards program has been such an absolute joy and privilege to lead. This program asks our team to carve out time and space for meaningful consultation on how Local Content programs support the needs and interests of community members, sparking conversations and discoveries that at times can be challenging, affirming or a mix of both. Reaching the end of our consultation with our 2022-2024 cohort, it has been so moving as mutually-held sentiments on the impact of local screen-based storytelling have been echoed back to us through the many reflections shared together at our final meeting earlier this year.

What are the Community Advisory Boards?

Launched in August 2022, the Community Advisory Boards are a program within TELUS Local Content where locally-engaged community members in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton consult with our team to help bring the best out of our programs and funding opportunities for creatives in Alberta and B.C. Providing feedback, insights and amplification through their unique lens of professional expertise, lived experience and deep community knowledge, our board members engage in critical support and create long-term impact on the future of TELUS Local Content. Our work with our Community Advisory Boards holds us accountable to our mission of furthering accessibility, inclusivity and authentic representation in locally-reflective storytelling on screen.

Thank you to the Community Advisory Boards 

Thank you to our Community Advisory Board members for their dedication, passion and expertise they have shown over their term. Their contributions have provided essential local insight into the stories we fund in our communities, helping to shape the future of Local Content’s programming strategy. We are honoured to have had this opportunity to collaborate with them, and we’re excited for what the future of our programming holds as their vision continues to influence our work. 

Spotlighting our 2022-2024 Board Members

After a two-year period of ongoing consultation, our board members summarized their recommendations with, among many categories of feedback for our work, a message of prioritizing purpose-driven, authentic local storytelling that creates an impact right where they live. In addition, they provided us with key takeaways and final thoughts on their experience.

Here’s what a few of them had to say.

Board Members from Calgary

“How beautiful it was to watch this program grow and see projects come to life. Your stories are getting out there for the world to see, it's magical!” - Melissa Crisanti

“The internal team of professionals at TELUS Local Content are doing a great job of creating opportunities for storytellers in our communities to tell their stories and sound their voices, and get funding and training to do so! It has been a pleasure and a privilege to serve this cause, the mission of their work and dedication of such fine individuals.” - Mitch Kern

Board Members from Edmonton

“My involvement with TELUS STORYHIVE was very rewarding. Creators with good ideas are mentored and supported as they produce short films and other media. This process gave me confidence that a STORYHIVE experience would provide long term benefits to my community’s storytellers.” - Scott Parker

“Although I am most appreciative of the support TELUS has provided for emerging documentary and reality filmmakers, I am really excited about the upcoming move to support fictional narrative work as well in the STORYHIVE Scripted Edition. All forms of storytelling are important and valuable, but my preference has always been for the creative impulse to create drama, interpret history and to explore interpersonal relations and the myths of our existence through plays of intellect and emotion.” - Samuel Koplowicz

“Over the past two years, I was always struck when I got to sit down and look at the applications coming into our programs how diverse the content creators are and how they were poised to delve into the work IF ONLY they had the skills, resources, and connections to tell their stories through the media medium of their choice. STORYHIVE provides those skills, connections, and training opportunities for these folks to help make their visions a reality and I am so proud to have been witness to this work.” - Kristi Hansen

Board Members from Vancouver

“I am proud to have been on the TELUS Local Content Community Advisory Board for the past two years, helping foster emerging diverse creators in producing innovative content that reflects our local communities today.” - Elizabeth Toward

“I think overall, it opened my eyes to the opportunity for Indigenous filmmakers to apply and participate in a great program. I have shared with many that I know within various First Nations communities.” - Johnna Sparrow

“I am excited for the future of TELUS Local Content, because I see how much the team cares to get quality and important stories told. They take their time to make sure that all voices are heard.” - Nataizya Mukwavi

“Thank you TELUS for the opportunity to participate on the Community Advisory Board. It was an honour to meet with such a diverse group of people to share our passions and insights into the world of community media creation. The TELUS model is a wonderful contribution to independent motion picture making. I was impressed by how seriously [Local Content] take their role and how well they help people from all communities get their stories out to a larger audience.” - Forman Howes

“Serving on the Community Advisory Board has been an incredible privilege, and working with such passionate and dedicated members and the TELUS team has been truly inspiring. Witnessing the diverse and dynamic content that TELUS produces and supports has been eye-opening. My top recommendation is to expand our outreach and share our amazing work beyond the TELUS network. The future of TELUS Local Content is incredibly promising, and I am thrilled about the green-lit projects on the horizon. [...] As Vancouver's diverse community continues to grow, I'm excited to see new storytellers emerge, bringing fresh perspectives and enriching our collective narrative.” - Gregory Geipel

Thank you again to our board members for your inspiring words and incredible work.  

We are now in the process of onboarding new board members to join the program for a new term, starting in fall 2024. Stay tuned for more news on our 2024-2026 board members!