Peter Cameron-Inglis, CEO of Mastermind Studios in Kamloops gives Dawn Koch, founder of AIMCanada Mentorship Society a high five.

(SHANNON AINSLIE / iNFOnews.ca)

A production company in Kamloops is taking an innovative and collaborative approach to finding solutions for communities impacted by social disorder, homelessness, substance use and crime.

Five episodes of a video podcast called Crisis Storm have been released so far, where front line workers, professors, industry experts, and all of those impacted by social disorder share experiences and perspectives on the issues.

“We want everybody’s perspective at the table, it’s not a one-sided bias thing,” said podcast creator and CEO of Mastermind Studios, Peter Cameron-Inglis. “We want to hear from businesses that are impacted, from the homeless themselves, from front line agencies. We want to hear from faith-based organizations and from people who are just pissed off and angry. Everybody has their own truth.”

With the number of overdose deaths and homelessness increasing every year there is also growing social disorder, misinformation and polarization. The podcast aims to gain a better understanding of the challenges and start identifying possible solutions as a community collective.

“It’s not about pointing fingers, it’s about figuring out all the pain points, what the challenges are and how to bring people together constructively and collaboratively to start finding solutions,” Cameron-Inglis said. “There is compassion fatigue, polarized opinions and misinformation to work through in these longer conversations.”

With five podcasts of Crisis Storm released so far, Cameron-Inglis said it has been “very well received” with tens of thousands of views across ten different audio platforms and YouTube.

“We have a lot of local listeners calling in asking when the next episode is and offering messages of support,” he said. “People have gone out of their way to tell me they’re getting a lot of insight from the content.”

Crisis Storm is part of a much bigger, long-term docu-series project called Finding a Way Forward – A City in Crisis that provides resources, Indigenous wisdom and academic insight into social disorder.

READ MORE: Why Kelowna’s homeless don’t get bathrooms in their new tiny shelters

Long-time Kamloops resident Dawn Koch is part of the project, bringing her many community connections and years of mentoring experience through her foundation AIMCanada Mentorship Society.

“The community is going to show us the way, we don’t have the answers but from conversation comes answers and the important part is listening,” she said. “The documentary series brings the community together in a mentorship type approach where knowledge is shared in a respectful, open format.”

READ MORE: Another site for a tiny home village for homeless in Kelowna selected

“With Dawn coming to me and us collaboratively coming up with this whole thing, there’s an opportunity to build a platform to bring people together instead of allowing polarization to continue,” Cameron-Inglis said.

One hope for the team is to become an example for other cities faced with similar challenges. 

Sponsors are needed to keep the docu-series moving forward, but while waiting for funding, the podcasts are a way to “keep the conversations going,” share research and “start making a difference.”

Go here for more information on projects by Mastermind Studios. 

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