The Beauty Within: How Storytelling Illuminates the Best of Belleville

It’s a dark and stormy night (for real) when I arrive in a less travelled part of the Bayview Mall parking lot. Following my instructions carefully, I find my way to a basement entrance door and proceed tentatively down the stairs.

I’m told that my client’s client is going to arrive and introduce me to some friends of his.

Sound sketchy?

***

If you had told me there was a world of wonders waiting for me in the basement of the mall, I might not have believed you.

But there it was: The perfectly reconstructed limestone of Kingston; the gently undulating landscape of Napanee; the original roundhouse of Belleville – all connected by a pair of miniature metal rails.

I had entered the domain of the Belleville Model Railroad Club. And amid the animated conversation of club regulars and the stunningly rendered miniature world of southern Ontario we have found our setting for a beautiful story of connection and belonging.

***

In discharging my duty as the story facilitator for CVNQuinte, I’m always gobsmacked by their scope of work. As they intentionally engineer success in collaboration with their clients – many of whom live with intellectual disabilities – it is with the ultimate goal of fostering relationships by first supporting the context. The research that underpins this approach was done by Janet Klees, and it empowers an approach that goes way beyond “programming” by the agency’s community support workers.

“Their goal is not just to take somebody someplace,” insists CVNQuinte Executive Director Terri Korkush, “but their objective is to help that person interject themselves into the space, look for the role that they can play, how they can contribute, how they can really enjoy the environment with the people.”

***

The proof of concept is in the smiles that the subject of our story, Brian R., both gives and receives throughout his regular Tuesday evening visits. The challenges of his hearing impairment are not a factor as his clubmates set him up with a controller and get his train rolling down the track.

There is a place for Brian here as there is a place for all of the club members. Like a key sliding into a lock. Or a train gliding into a station.

I hope you enjoy this short exploration of Brian’s connections in Belleville. You may find the full written feature plus film here or just skip right to the film here: