Year in Review – 2019 at Drawing Change

It was a big year for our small team at Drawing Change – here’s our Year in Review! As the decade comes to a close, we have lots to be thankful for.

• Graphic recorders and facilitators travelled to 4 continents, 5 countries, 5 Canadian provinces and 3 territories, 6 US States, and many Indigenous and Inuit homelands. Pictured is (almost) everyone who represented Drawing Change this year – we are a core team of 6 and had lots of teamwork along the way. Thank you to everyone!
• We published three new in-depth online resources in 2019: 1) co-creating agreements in meetings, 2) things that are pretending to be meetings, and 3) how graphic facilitators can support Indigenous cultural safety
• Facilitation highlights: I facilitated in Nepal for a project about ending violence against women and girls. And by the second strategic planning session with the David Suzuki Foundation I had become a donor 🙂
• Five graphic facilitation trainings: including capacity-building workshops in the Arctic Circle where someone skied to one of my workshops in -58 Celcius! We hosted two public training workshops in Vancouver. It took a while to catch our breath by the fall, so next year, we’re only hosting one workshop in Vancouver for 2020 
• We’re always learning, on top of all the workshops we attend or host. Congrats to Michelle who graduated with her Masters of Public Policy; Adriana is lettering with Heather Martinez; Carina is developing her illustration, video and graphic recording skills, and I attended a Deep Democracy training in England and Kelvy’s Advanced Generative Scribing training in NYC
• New book, the World of Visual Practice: I have two chapters in the newest (and possibly a record-breaking weight) book about visual practice
• Three Community Scholars created their first paid graphic recording projects
• Drawing Change became an official Living Wage Employer (and joined Vancity’s small business health plan, too)
• New website! Thanks to Krisztina Kun for the beautiful, hand-coded design
• Keynote speaker – Thank you to Graphic Designers of Canada -BC Chapter, and Aurora College instructors in Yellowknife for the opportunity to be your keynote about creativity and visual thinking. I went outside my comfort zone both times, and luckily educators and creatives are a supportive audience
• Drawing Change co-hosted a big Vancouver-Victoria community meetup with Tanya Gadsby from The Fuselight
• Speaking of colleagues and IFVP – our professional association hosted a great conference in NJ this year. (It was wonderful to celebrate at the Crowley and Co team party, too!) And, I joined the IFVP-I: International Forum of Visual Practice Institute Board, to work on a project about core competencies for our field.

Our clients work on complex, challenging issues – and so much is possible when the approach is creative and collaborative. Wishing you a restful end to 2019.

From everyone at Drawing Change, we are looking forward to amplifying your good work in 2020.