Call for Participants: Poetic Forecasts
Poetic Forecasts: Using Creative Practices to Anticipate Wellness Challenges and Needs in a Changing Climate
Poetic Forecasts is an interdisciplinary project that will address the current Anthropocene moment through arts-based methods and scientific knowledge to explore connections between lived experiences of wellness and weather and climate factors. Themes that emerge from community writing sessions, narratives captured in poems created by project participants, and auto-ethnography and research-creation outcomes will highlight key weather and climate factors impacting wellness. Results will provide professionals, scholars, and activists involved in planning wellness supports in our climate catastrophe with deep affective testimonies to inform action based on lived experiences and earth sciences expertise. Project deliverables will include a freely available tool that individuals or groups can use to understand components of their dynamic lived wellness experiences and connections to weather and climate through poetic inquiry, as well as scholarly publications, presentations, and creative works.
This study will help us learn more about how poetry can be used to make connections between wellness and weather and climate. Themes and stories from participant contributions will be compared with climate change trends and challenges for the workshop regions to anticipate wellness supports that people might need as the climate continues to change. We are inviting you to participate because your unique lived experiences are the foundation that will make this research possible.
About the Project Lead, Dr. Samantha Jones
What to Expect if you Participate
Information letter with project details and consent form with participation options: Poetic Forecasts Information Letter and Consent Form
Community writing workshop draft session plan: Poetic Forecasts Workshop Session Plan
Optional follow-up interview topics and general format: Poetic Forecasts Semi-structured Interviews
Project data types and data lifecycle: Jones – Data types and lifecycle
Upcoming Community Writing Workshops
Location: Kelowna, BC
Date and time: September 23, 2026, 5:00-8:00 pm
Address and room: Woodhaven Ecoculture Centre, 969 Raymer Road, Kelowna, BC (driving directions will be provided)
Link to register: https://www.surveymonkey.ca/r/Z6DG8Q7
Location: Red Deer, AB
Date and time: October 26, 2026, 1:30-4:30 pm
Address and room: Red Deer Public Library, 4818 49th Street, Red Deer, AB, T4N 1T9
Waskasoo Kiwanis Boardroom
Link to register: https://www.surveymonkey.ca/r/ZZ2W6PD
Thank you to participants who attended the Calgary, Smithers, and Prince George workshops! Your contributions are the heart of Poetic Forecasts. I would also like to extend my appreciation to the local people, venues, organizations, and businesses that made these workshops fun to host in beautiful spaces with delicious snacks.
Research Project Funding
This research is a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship supervised by Dr. Sarah de Leeuw (sarah.deleeuw@unbc.ca). Funding and support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, University of Northern British Columbia, and the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. Thank you to the FEELed Lab, UBC Okanagan, for access to their facilities as in-kind support for the workshop in Kelowna, BC.
Questions, Concerns or Complaints about the project
If you have questions about what we are asking of you, please contact Dr. Samantha Jones at Samantha.Jones@unbc.ca. Alternatively, you can leave a message at 250-960-5993 and it will be forwarded to Dr. Jones.
This study has been reviewed by the UNBC Research Ethics Board (File No: 6010198). Any concerns or complaints can be directed to reb@unbc.ca or by phone to 250-960-6735.