Counter Stories Productions
At MCSR we know that storytelling has the power to connect people and ideas. Much of our work centers around understanding dominant stories of masculinity and womanhood and replacing those with counter stories. While our young people are bombarded daily with negative, harmful, and limiting messages about the dominant story, counter stories are the foundation for developing healthier personal identities open to more diverse expressions and actions.
Counter Stories Productions, our signature arts initiative, builds on our evidence-based youth development programming that engages boys and men as changemakers, leaders, and allies in preventing and ending violence. Through the lens of MOST and WISE Club curricula, MCSR developed Counter Stories Productions to encourage and empower the creativity of young people, establish avenues for sharing their lived experience, and build communications and media-related workforce development skills.
Counter Stories Productions creates storytelling opportunities by and for youth by engaging our Club members in developing visual, audio, and digital elements that explore solutions for resisting the skewed values and unhealthy expectations of dominant stories about masculinity and womanhood.
Counter Stories: The MCSR Podcast (2023)
Nameless: a documentary about child sex trafficking in Washington, D.C.
Nameless is a documentary that addresses child sex trafficking in Washington, DC, and at-large. Through interviews with experts, advocates, and activists, child sex trafficking is reframed as a form of sexual violence that is often made invisible. Child sex trafficking is explored as an issue with deep historical-cultural roots, tackles misperceptions about which populations are most vulnerable to being trafficked, and illuminates systemic gaps in the current treatment of trafficking victims. Featuring 15 interviewees on the frontlines of the issue, Nameless mobilizes viewers to recognize and combat child sex trafficking.
Nameless can be used as an awareness-raising and educational tool.
Section one addresses how trafficking happens. Section two explores who is most likely to be trafficked and the historical roots of that exploitation. Section three offers prevention and intervention tips that all people can engage in to prevent and end child sex trafficking.
The National Healthy Masculinity Conversation Series
The National Healthy Masculinity Conversation Series consists of creative dialogues facilitated by MCSR that examine healthy masculinity’s presence in all areas of human behavior—especially in the prevention of men’s violence against women and girls. The hour-long conversations are broadcast live over YouTube, and viewers are invited to submit questions via the YouTube Live chat box or via Twitter @wearemcsr.
WHAT WE DO
YOUTH DEVELOPMENT | TRAININGS & CONSULTING SERVICES | ARTS & MEDIA