• to give me, as The Creative Cocoon, locations and contacts that will support my vision of taking a camper van on the road visiting small rural communities to gather stories of illness. Illness to include life threatening illnesses, and mental health challenges

• to create a series of my signature Stories in Motion for those individuals, and for their family or community.

• These Stories in Motion may be shown at Celebrations of Life, or for family members to give them a different perspective of the stories of their loved ones. This personal and collaborative approach acknowledges stories that may have been untold up to this point. Families in particular will have the voice of their loved ones reading their words and where possible, images of their artmaking as well.

• the opportunity to tell these stories is often only afforded to urban centres, this project wants to put that right as much as possible

In urban environments there are hospices, palliative care, easy to access mental health services, and other supporting services. Rural communities often do not have these in an accessible way

the tasks needed to complete my project goal will include:

• researching what services are available to those with life threatening illnesses / mental health challenges in rural communities and which ones are not initially in Ontario, but if possible other provinces/territories

• document specific contacts that will connect me with people who can refer people with potential stories

• contacts for libraries, diners, community centres, local newspapers in the rural communities who could promote this service

• create an itinerary for the 3-week pilot in Ontario initially, where the research points to between 4 - 6 receptive communities. The itinerary will include Provincial Parks, or similar, to camp in close to each community. With the information collected a logical route from one community to the next will be clear.