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changestories.bsky.social
Change Stories
@changestories.bsky.social
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Change Stories is an international research partnership that aims to spark dialogue and learning through storytelling about equitable and sustainable urban development. See more about us and the work we do at https://changestories.be.uw.edu/
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changestories.bsky.social
With this amazing group of people, every minute is filled with inspiration and excitement from sharing and discussing new ideas. Surrounded by beautiful flowers and hills of Villa de Leyva, we worked on our cross-comparative papers and "Other Voices" book, a repository of nuanced stories of change.
October 27, 2025 at 10:08 PM
changestories.bsky.social
Be part of a global exchange shaping more equitable and sustainable cities — and the stories we tell about them!
Learn more about the Change Stories Fellows program at the webinar on Wednesday, October 22nd, at 10-11am PT / 1-2pm ET. Register for the webinar at changestories.be.uw.edu/fellows/
October 17, 2025 at 6:30 PM
changestories.bsky.social
Be part of a global exchange shaping more equitable and sustainable cities — and the stories we tell about them!
Applications are now open for the Change Stories Fellows program, a learning and knowledge exchange program that includes U.S.-based leaders and changemakers in equity and sustainability.
The image shows text and a photograph of buildings in Belo Horizonte with trees in the foreground. The buildings are colorful and offset against a blue sky. Under the photo are the participating organization logos (University of Washington, Observatory for Urban Health Belo Horizonte, Federal University of Minas Gerais, University of the Andes, Queen's University Belfast, University of Toronto). The text reads: Change Stories Fellows. Urban Change Fellowship in Brazil. This fellowship is a learning and knowledge exchange program for leaders and change-makers working on urban equity and sustainability. The fellowship includes a one-week immersive learning trip to Belo Horizonte, Brazil, one of three global change stories sites. To apply: https://changestories.be.uw.edu/ Application open: October 10, 2025 Applications due: November 14, 2025
October 13, 2025 at 6:02 PM
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See the full document at: changestories.be.uw.edu/cities/scree...

#Bogotá #manzanadecuidado #careblocks #Urbanchange #Socialjustice #Equitablechange #Communityorganizing #urbanstorytelling
September 26, 2025 at 6:18 PM
changestories.bsky.social
Through illustrations and short text, we document powerful stories of the diverse actors who co-created this innovative policy. The illustrations highlight community-based political campaigning and collective action to improve the quality of life for all Bogotá residents.
September 26, 2025 at 6:18 PM
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Bogotá’s public care system addresses the needs of unpaid caregivers, mostly women, and prioritizes investments in the city’s most deprived and peripheral neighborhoods.
September 26, 2025 at 6:18 PM
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Belo Horizonte, Brazil, is a global leader in food sovereignty and security policies. We created an illustrated guide to re-examine the story of how Belo Horizonte developed these policies and programs, celebrate their successes, and expose their unresolved flaws.
September 24, 2025 at 7:19 PM
changestories.bsky.social
However, the counter-narrative voiced by the community groups is that Belfast’s urban development is not meeting the needs of marginalized communities. They take the lead and put into practice initiatives that address common needs and promote peace and social cohesion.
A drawing of a high apartment building, so-called Flats, illustrating social housing. Arrows between speech bubbles indicate the recommended flow of the reading from the right top speech bubble to the left speech bubble to the right bottom bubble. An illustration of a middle-aged woman named Laura who is an academic and community organizer. She has wavy, longer black hair and wears glasses, a pink bottom-up sweater, a blue shirt, and says, “Community organizers play an important role filling gaps in advocating for equitable development.” An illustration of a young woman named Maeve who is a social housing resident and community organizer. She has long black hair, a green sweater, and says “Religious inequality continues to be a feature in social housing building and allocation.” An illustration of a young woman named Sara who is a student and community organizer. She wears a purple hijab, a black sweater, and says, “The policy mindset reinforces rather than challenges the idea of segregation in the city.” Rachel, the graphic summary’s guide, is saying, “Across the city, various groups have campaigned for housing and against gentrification.” Two women and two men are sitting around the table. The women are pointing to a square on the table that looks like an urban plan with dark blue, light blue, dark green, and light green sections. The people are wearing brown, purple, blue, and pink sweaters, and one of the women wears a grey hijab. Terracotta arrows emerge from the plan, pointing to initiatives that are discussed further on the page. A drawing of a garden surrounded by trees and a fence. On the left is a greenhouse with an adult and a child standing in front of it. In the center are two planters full of produce. Between the planters is a person with a watering can. In the background is a simple wooden garden house with two people standing on the right side. Behind the fence in the background is a residential building. A drawing of a bridge over a river in a lush natural environment full of trees. A few people are walking across the bridge. A drawing of Mackie’s site master plan for social housing in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The drawing of the plan includes 14 buildings, a bridge across a river, and a lush natural environment embedded in the landscape.  “Change Stories” project logo. A gray image of the globe with the Global South in the center, along with an urban city drawing.
September 22, 2025 at 5:11 PM
changestories.bsky.social
In Belfast, the dominant narrative is that the city is achieving peace through prosperity after a long history of conflict and is an international model for conflict resolution.
A drawing of urban landscape with dense housing, peace walls, inner-urban motorways highlighted in browns dividing the urban fabric, and Flats where the social housing was placed in the 1990s. Rachel, the graphic summary’s guide, is speaking with her hand up and out to the side. There is a speech bubble with the following text: “The motorway blocks access from a housing state of deprived communities in North Belfast.” Drawing of a neighborhood divided in the middle by peace walls colored pink from one side and purple from the other side. On the drawing are many long two-story houses, with trees, a few cars, and many people walking and biking on the streets.
September 22, 2025 at 5:11 PM
changestories.bsky.social
Cities have dominant stories about their history, identity, and change. These stories circulate via many channels such as the news, official documents, and political speeches. Counter-narratives oftentimes tell a different story about the city and its change, including who has been left out and why.
n illustration of a street in Belfast with typical two-story houses attached to each other with small front gardens. At the end of the street, a wall is seen as a residue from the Troubles. There is a mural painting on the wall with two holding hands with flowers surrounding them. Purple triangle flags are stretched between the houses and flying in the air. There are several people on the street, a man with a child, a woman gardening, a woman walking out of the door, and a woman sitting and raising her hand in a peace sign. In the forefront is a woman representing a guide through the graphic summary, Rachel, waving, smiling, and saying, “Welcome to Belfast!” She is middle-aged, has gray hair with pink highlights, and white skin. She wears a blue hoodie jacket, beige pants, and brown shoes. A drawing of a port with a large boat entering the canal. There are five-story Victorian buildings surrounding the canal on both sides. In front of the buildings are sidewalks with many people walking. The sidewalk on the right side is wider with long wooden-looking shacks. In the bottom left corner of the drawing is Rachel, the graphic summary’s guide, speaking with her hand up and out to the side. There is a speech bubble with the following text: “My father moved to Belfast from the countryside to work in industry.” A drawing of a large crowd of protesters marching through the street. They are holding a large protest sign saying, “Civil Rights March”, along with many other signs with unreadable text. A drawing of a peace wall. On the left side is a two-story house with four people surrounding the entrance. The peace wall is attached to the house and has three levels related to three different time-points the wall was built – the lowest level of the wall is built from bricks, the second level is built from dense iron poles, and the third level is built from less dense poles. There are mural paintings on the wall with abstract busts of people, a person waving a closer-unspecified flag, and a person with a hat and sunglasses. There are two people in front of the wall and a house behind the wall.
September 22, 2025 at 5:11 PM
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Exhibition "The State of Belfast", currently in the Metropolitan Arts Centre, Belfast, is a multi-faceted project drawing connections between art practice and housing rights activism through an extensive public programme of talks, tours, and screenings.
August 13, 2025 at 12:25 PM
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Join us for a walking tour of Cathedral Quarter - Belfast where we will be discussing the area’s recent decline and future potential!

14 Aug 2025
Time: 5pm - 6.30pm
Free, but Booking Required:
themaclive.com/event/saving...
August 12, 2025 at 3:24 PM
changestories.bsky.social
By providing free, healthy meals to waste pickers in downtown Belo Horizonte, it affirms food as a right and strengthens collective efforts toward food sovereignty in the city.
Photo credits: Maria Olívia Floriano
#changestories #asmare #mst #foodsecurity #solidaritykitchen #belohorizonte
August 12, 2025 at 10:05 AM
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Maria Brás Solidarity Kitchen remains a powerful example of how alliances between rural and urban social movements can confront hunger through solidarity.
August 12, 2025 at 10:04 AM
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Aarathi Prasad, one of the Change Stories’ advisory group members, is involved in the Plastic Waste Innovation Hub, a team of researchers, designers, and engineers exploring issues of plastic waste while recognizing that there are no simple solutions as plastic is intricately embedded in our lives.
Drawings of six people potty training children. Image credit: Polina Pencheva, UCL UCL Plastic Waste Innovation Hub launched www.bigtoiletproject.org the first global, and most ambitious attempt to understand people’s practices and techniques for toilet training children, to determine what works best for the children, parents, schools and the environment, and why. A photo of garbage waste with a text "Globally, every minute, more than 300,000 disposable nappies are sent to landfill, incinerated, or end up in the environment.". A text " If you are a parent or adult responsible for toilet training a child, please help University College London’s Big Toilet Project understand the factors and context that influence successful toilet training and advise governments how to reduce the amount of plastic pollution caused by disposable baby diapers." and a logo of the Big Toilet Project.
June 16, 2025 at 9:13 PM
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From body awareness and artistic resistance to conflict resolution and alliance-building, these collective efforts shape new ways to participate and lead. #FeministLeadership #WomenInPolitics #WomenEmpowerment #PoliticalParticipation
#LeadershipForChange #CommunityVoices
#SocialJustice#ChangeStories
May 15, 2025 at 10:51 PM
changestories.bsky.social
Powerful days with the Women’s Advisory Council in Bogotá 💜 We co-create political advocacy projects through a leadership course built by and for women.
May 15, 2025 at 10:51 PM
changestories.bsky.social
“Stories about urban change are often simplified, giving credit to a single mayor or policy, which is not usually the full story,” says Sergio Montero, Change Stories collaborator and Associate Professor at the University of Toronto. @sergemont.bsky.social
May 1, 2025 at 7:54 PM
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Through Change Stories, we are establishing new types of relationships between academic and community-based partners, centering joy and respect for diverse knowledge in our work.
Learn more about the Change Stories project in the full video on changestories.be.uw.edu
February 28, 2025 at 8:57 PM
changestories.bsky.social
How does storytelling relate to urban change? And why is important to understand the whole story?
Watch the full video on the Change Stories website:
changestories.be.uw.edu
#Changestories #Storytelling #Storytellingforimpact
February 28, 2025 at 8:47 PM
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Meitheal is the Irish word for a work team and denotes the co-operative labour system in Ireland where groups of neighbours help each other in turn with farming work, such as harvesting crops. To the heart of the concept is community unity through cooperative work and mutually reciprocal support.
February 28, 2025 at 8:31 PM
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In October, we gathered for a powerful Collective Memory event with the Women’s Advisory Council of Bogotá. It underscored the crucial role of women’s voices in shaping the District’s Public Policy on Women and Gender Equality and honored those who have strengthened the Council since 2007.
February 28, 2025 at 8:25 PM
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A few days a week, the community comes together planting, nurturing, harvesting and cooking food. They share knowledge, memories and recipes. They develop old and new skills, as they root around in the past and plan for future.
February 28, 2025 at 8:09 PM
changestories.bsky.social
In the centre of Belfast, a group of artists and activists have come together to turn an abandoned space into a community garden. They have set an open fire for people to sit together and explore what it means to feed themselves in the face of the climate crisis.
February 28, 2025 at 8:09 PM
changestories.bsky.social
Positioning care at the forefront of the public agenda in Bogotá has been a collective effort from various spheres. Women’s movements, policymakers, state bureaucrats, and economists have worked together to ensure that feminism underpins public policy and women fully and equally exercise citizenship
February 28, 2025 at 1:11 AM