Alumni Spotlight: Miriam Korn
Miriam Korn is a graduate from the Community Leadership Development Program (CLDP) in 2004. She completed a very powerful community action project with her group members entitled the “Celebration of Colour”. In this Alumni Story, Miriam tells us about how her project benefited the community (and her life) and what she is up to now.
Tell us more about your Community Action Project...
The purpose of the project was to revitalize the women’s area in the Streetlink shelter. The group renovated the sitting area, bathroom, and bedrooms with paint, carpet, artwork, curtains, furniture and fixtures.
The project contributed to giving women a sense of ownership to the area, fostered a greater connection with the community, and enriched the learning and growth for Leadership Victoria program participants.
Where is Miriam Today?
Today, Dr. Miriam Korn is a Dalhousie and Harvard- trained psychiatrist with a professional practice in Victoria, British Columbia. She is very passionate about community issues
including Health and Wellness.
Miriam has been an active voice in the community by developing simple handouts and booklets for the public. In 2014, she launched her Living Well workbook at the Royal Jubilee Hospital Patient Care Center. Miriam has been working on the development of outreach materials promoting health and wellness, including the Living Well workbook. These booklets have received a lot of attention throughout North America and have been distributed at various health programs throughout Greater Victoria.
To see the entire content of the booklet, along with other great information, visit Dr. Korn’s website.
How did the Community Leadership Development Program impact your life?
Miriam continues to update her website to provide basic, accessible information about healthy lifestyle choices. The content is based on recent research in health promotion and healthy aging, as well as over a decade of experience as a psychiatrist. The website hopes to inspire and inform readers to pursue healthier and happier lives with simple changes.
Her most recent project is creating a slideshow, based on the Living Well workbook. The slideshow is available to the public on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBUlV2QogiA . It has been displayed at a local clinic and various locations at the Royal Jubilee Hospital.
As a CLDP graduate, Miriam recalls working with her community project group to be very memorable and rewarding. She also enjoyed meeting with Streetlink residents to get ideas (“garden, spring, flowers, tree, shelter, fairy, goddess, island”) to create murals for the women’s space. She was impressed by the variety of skills and resources offered by each member of the group and amazed by the synergy created by the group in completing the project. Miriam continues to apply the collaborative skills gained from her time at Leadership Victoria to create a local impact through her Health & Wellness initiatives.