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.