Building mentorship programs and community initiatives has been part of my work for well over a decade. It started during my undergraduate studies, where I applied that interest of community development to further my learning in the humanities, but the real lessons came from the lived experiences of growing up in communities where opportunities and resources for social and economic growth were limited.

Over time, that mix of education and real-world experience became the catalyst for how I created projects across different sectors from post-secondary education to the creative industries.

The Mentorship Model that Taught Me How to Build

I want to highlight a mentorship model that shaped how I think about peer learning as a model for change.

My first professional career role after my undergrad was as a mentoring officer for the Tri-Mentoring Program at Toronto Metropolitan University. The Tri-Mentoring Program was developed by Liza Arnason and launched in 2001 as a pilot program to support student retention and improve career outcomes for first-generation students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Definition: A first generation student is someone whose parents or guardians have not completed post-secondary education. These students become the first in their family to navigate higher education, often facing challenges such as financial pressure and difficulty navigating campus resources.

The program was built on a simple but powerful idea to support students at different stages of their journey.

It started with peer mentorship where first-year students (mentees) were paired with upper-year students (mentors) who could help them connect with campus life, classes, and the many questions that come with navigating education as a first-generation student.

As those students gained experience, they moved into the next stage of leadership development. Many of the same mentees later became mentors themselves, guiding the next group of students, while learning how to lead, communicate, and support others.

The final stage was connecting students to career mentors from industry. In their final years of study, student mentors were matched with professionals who could offer advice, expand their networks, and help them prepare for life after graduation.

There are three reasons why I saw this mentorship model as impactful

1. It builds community: Students don’t feel alone in their journey because they have a peer to guide them.

2. It creates a mentorship cycle: mentees eventually become mentors, keeping knowledge growing within the community.

3. It bridges education and careers: The mentorship continues by connecting students to professionals before they graduate.

For many students from under-resourced or first-generation backgrounds, this type of structure can make the difference between dropping out and finding a path forward.

My commitment to mentorship grew stronger after I graduated and joined the program as a mentoring officer. The role helped me turn my passion into a profession that I didn’t think was possible.

During those early years I had already been building informal mentorship networks through student life by creating cultural groups and community events, but this experience showed me how to turn that work into a structured program that could support more people.

From Community Learning to Creative Action

As I focused more on my purpose, storytelling and creating change became central to my work and I began sharing what I had learned about how mentorship and community-building could drive real social impact.

Some of these early ideas came out in my first public talks, including a 2012 TEDx talk at my alma mater, where I discussed my experiences and how we can act on change through community. It grounded my focus on creating spaces for others whether through mentorships or through physical spaces that provide a platform for community.

As I moved from education into international development and the creative industries, I learned a lot by both taking part in and building mentorship programs with civic and non-profit institutions both locally and internationally.

I had seen mentorship work in education. The next question for me became what would this look like in the creative industries?

As a visual documentarian using the camera to tell stories, one area that quickly caught my attention was community arts programming. I saw how art could be a tool for change by helping communities come together and amplifying voices that often go unheard.

Over time, I’ve taken what I learned from mentorship and community arts programming so it could be adapted to my own programming in the creative industries as way to create impact in underserved neighbourhoods.

That work really took shape as we created our first social impact documentary project

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Scarborough Made as a Model for Community Arts.

When my creative partner, Alex Narvaez, and I co-founded Scarborough Made, it was our way of changing how traditional media told stories about our communities in Toronto’s East. We wanted to highlight the people we grew up around; the everyday heroes, the cultural instigators, and the voices that could share a real human perspective on what it meant to come from Scarborough.

In that first year, we hit the ground running, producing over 30 stories through photography and cinematography. A short segment debuted online, and the full project launched at Nuit Blanche Toronto in 2019, one of Canada’s largest all-night arts festivals.

From those stories, we started building the foundations and pillars of a social impact project that used documentary storytelling and public art to engage the community, turning our experiences into something the world could see and feel.

But we knew one integral piece was missing from this work. Like many artists from Scarborough, our lived experiences was that we had to leave Scarborough to find work because the local creative economy lacked the support and funding. Our own high school arts programs influenced our interest in the creative industries, but there was no clear path for us to sustain that growth in Scarborough.

Scarborough Made was about amplifying the voices in our communities and to truthfully accomplish that, we couldn’t do it alone.

For us the most valuable part of this work was the creative mentorship programming that was built around it which helped us pass the torch to others who could become documentary storytellers for the project.

It allowed me to dig back into my knowledge as a grant writer and community builder to bring back funding and resources to Scarborough that could support emerging youth artists from equity deserving populations.

From 2021 to 2024, we ran yearly creative mentorship programs, supporting BIPOC youth from our neighbourhoods and helped develop skills for community-driven documentary storytelling that grew the work among emerging artists.

In 2025, after five years of building community through Scarborough Made we saw the need to continue that evolution through other projects that we could build.

Scarborough Made showed us that this work was needed more than ever. What changed was the intervention that we had taken on to address the challenge of Scarborough’s perception was no longer needed as more and more people returned to amplify the message of Scarborough to the world.

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Change Made: The Next Chapter

Scarborough Made was created to champion the stories of Toronto’s East and for 5 years, we built community arts programming and public art installations that highlighted the people and culture of our neighbourhoods.

We accomplished what we set out to do and over time I realized the next step was to take my experience as a development practitioner to work and support other communities.

That’s how began. It was the next logical step to bring together lessons from my professional journey through education, international development, and the creative industries. I share how I’ve been building the brand in previous Behind Change Made Dispatch

The north star behind this work is simple: use visual storytelling and journalism to explore how people are creating change.

It was a space where we could move from reporting on how the system is broken to look at how communities are responding to challenges or creating solutions to fix it.

A big part of this work is focused on solutions journalism stories that show how people, organizations, and communities are tackling real problems.

We’re already putting this into practice through our reporting series “Solutions on the Streets.” One first story for this series “Fades, Frames & Futures,” highlighted how a Scarborough barbershop and a local community group are raising awareness around youth unemployment among Black and racialized youth.

Now we’re building on that work with a new mentorship program to continue telling these stories.

The Next Chapter Program is a micro-mentorship program that we’re launching with PhotoED Magazine & Think Tank for early stage photographers and photojournalists who want to document solutions stories and get published.

Creating this mentorship isn’t about learning how to take better photos. It’s about learning how to see stories differently, how to build trust with communities and document people with care and ethics.

For me, this program is also about investing back into independent community journalism. As local newsrooms close, there are fewer spaces for community stories to be told. Mentorship can help train the next generation of visual journalists who want to document change and culture from where they live through their own perspectives.

Mentorship played a major role in my own journey. It showed me that meaningful work is never built alone. From my early days as a community builder to the programs we created through Scarborough Made, I’ve always tried to create spaces where people can develop their voices and connect use lived experiences to guide their storytelling.

Through The Next Chapter Program, we want to help emerging photographers and photojournalists shape how stories in their communities are seen by not only highlighting the challenges people face but by also showing how they respond to it and push the world forward.

This is the next chapter for Change Made and for storytellers ready to grow with us, I hope it can be the next chapter for you too.

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If you have a solutions story tip or are interested in contributing as to , as always you can reach me at sid@changemade.co.

If you’re new here, welcome. If you’ve followed my creative work for a while, you might be wondering what happened to SNCD Studio.

The simple version is this: SNCD Studio is now Change Made.

SNCD (pronounced “Sync’d”) was founded in 2021, in the middle of the pandemic. It was the creative enterprise I built to hold everything I was doing under one umbrella: my photojournalism, community projects by Scarborough Made, and different types of client work. Within a year of launching, SNCD Studio became the service arm of this work; and we evolved to support more organizations through media production, grant fundraising, and digital marketing & web.

I didn’t create Change Made because I wanted a fresher name; it was because the work kept growing, and I needed to organize the house before remodelling it.

I’ve never been the kind of creator who gets it perfect on the first try. I build things, put them out in the world, learn what actually lands, and adjust as needed. Some projects I’ve built were for a season, and others grew way beyond what I could have imagined. What I noticed was that the beats in all of my work have always felt the same: documentary storytelling, community, and social change.

Change Made wasn’t a pivot. It’s a convergence.

My career has taken me through post-secondary education, international development, and the creative industries. Some seasons focused on creating impact-driven stories, and others on building community programs or grassroots initiatives. What got harder to ignore was that change was central in everything I was trying to do.

So if the mission was about change, then the brand had to say that out loud.

The last decade of my work has been full of history and learning. It was when I left a full-time 9-5 career to become a full-time freelancer and business owner. SNCD is a product of all those early experiments, the months of building the plane as I flew it, the years of taking on projects that stretched me, relationship-building and defining the work across countries, and, most importantly, dreaming out the kind of storyteller and community builder I wanted to become.

And as I’ve gotten older, I’ve had to become more laser-focused on my direction to make the vision stick.

For me, that vision has never been clearer than now: visual storytelling that moves people to action, solutions-focused content that creates more impact and capacity building in communities where the talent lives but resources don’t.

The name “Change Made” fits that vision better than SNCD Studios could, and it pays homage to Scarborough Made, a project that laid the foundation for the creative changemaking work that I’ve built with others.

The biggest decision: separating studio work from editorial work

This part is important, especially if you’re here for the journalism side of what we’re looking to build.

As I began developing Change Made as a social enterprise, I realized I needed to draw a clear line and establish two divisions to fuel the brand.

• Change Made Studios: this is the production side, it’s the profit-generating client work that focuses on the media production business, commissioned documentary work and creative services to help organizations have more impact.

• Change Made Press: this is the editorial side of our work; it’s the independent reporting, visual storytelling and solutions journalism that we’re creating to support knowledge sharing and resource building across local communities.

Both divisions share values and create brand synergy, but separation was essential to protect the integrity of our impact-driven journalism focus, especially in today’s environment, where trust in mainstream media is eroding.

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What the studio is focused on now

With the launch of Change Made, the studio division continued to expand its footprint into a few key areas:

• Media production: photography, cinematography, documentary media and public art

• Grant fundraising: fundraising strategy + writing support for funding applications

• Digital marketing & web: the work that helps good projects get seen

• Business development consulting: communication and governance infrastructure to help organizations scale

I’ve been supporting and building with impact-driven organizations and bodies across the public and private sectors for over 15 years. I’ve focused on building the studios to support these key areas because it’s where the most help is needed in communications.

Despite doing meaningful work, I see many emerging and legacy organizations, particularly in under-resourced communities, struggle time and time again to communicate with their audiences in today’s attention-driven economy.

Why I’m building Change Made

I’ve seen how stories can hold power and create space. I know the change that’s possible when stories are told with care, and I’ve seen what happens when stories are used to divide us.

The stories we produce won’t change the world. It will do something quieter and just as important.

We’re creating stories to help people understand what’s happening, who it’s happening to and what’s possible next.

This is the foundation of Change Made: visual storytelling that makes change easier to understand and easier to act on.

You can expect a newsletter twice a month and more when a story demands it.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for taking the time to understand the story behind Change Made. If you’ve been following my visual storytelling work over the years, or more recently through Scarborough Made, thank you for continuing to follow along.

There’s always more change to be made.

- Sid Naidu

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Before I plan the next few posts, I want to know what would actually be useful to you.

I’ve spent my life trying to answer a simple question: how do stories move people to create positive change?

It’s a question I’ve asked as a result of carrying a camera, for well over 20 years now, documenting both people and places around the world.

It took me years of building storytelling campaigns, producing different bodies of work and creating independent documentary projects before it started to make sense.

I go into more details about what pushed me to this work in an article, “Making Something Out of Nothing,” which I wrote close to 3 years ago, as I started building the new brand and attempted but failed to get back to writing more regularly.

What I started to see over time was this direct link between our shared narratives and driving action towards social change.

What I learned from looking through the lens was that the stories we share can become a powerful tool for shaping how we see the world.

It’s one of the reasons I decided to push further and focus my career on photojournalism, documentary media production, and communications.

Because the art of storytelling for me is about moving people to take action by sharing different perspectives.

Stories don’t change the world on their own. They change how people understand the world and that’s where change becomes more possible.

Tupac said it best:

I started writing with this a question that’s felt been my life pursuit:

How do stories move people to create change?

I think the answer is simpler than I expected. Stories don’t change the world, they change the people who do

Stories won’t pass policy, write a law or redesign a system, but it will shape the values of people who will.

And a camera can’t carry a movement or solve the climate crisis, but it can document the truth and make injustices harder to ignore.

I built Change Made because I believe that stories can do more than just inform.

They help us see each other more clearly and make change feel more possible.

Stories raise awareness that points towards action.

This newsletter is where I’ve come back to share what I’m working on, what I’m learning, and how I’m building Change made as a visual journalism platform.

So, if the ideas behind change is something that moves you, or if you’re just curious, take a moment and subscribe.

If you’re already here, thank you for trusting me with your attention

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You can expect posts twice a month and sometime’s more when the story demands it as I carve out more time for short and long form reporting.

In my next article, I’ll share more Behind Change Made and how I’ve been building the platform over the past three years.

If you have a lead or a story tip especially on community solutions, climate stories or cultural shifts worth paying attention to; email me at sid@changemade.co.

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From Hard Knock Beginnings

In the early stages of my entrepreneurship journey, I created a brand called Hard Knock Leadership. It was a platform where I could share my journey unapologetically by pulling from my lived experiences of growing up in marginalized communities. It was my first taste at freelancing through a brand identity that I could build from the ground up.

It allowed me to chase my passion for supporting people and building communities. It gave me purpose as a creator, changemaker and aspiring humanitarian. Without a plan or guide, I was pushed far beyond my comfort zone and learned some of the most valuable lessons through failures and successes on the road.

I strived to become the king of bounce back from many of those failures, but some of those losses hit hard, and the successes no longer felt as relevant. As the world started sharing more, I found solitude in sharing less. Imposter syndrome mixed with burnout can be a silencing drink. After stepping into an executive leadership role, I felt Hard Knock Leadership had served its purpose, so I retired from the alias to focus on a full-time career.

My hard-knock beginnings put me in a position to chase challenging roles where working became my only focus. Where I lacked experience or talent, I knew I could make up for those shortcomings by being the hardest working person in the room. I took pride in telling myself I could last the longest on the treadmill, until I could not. It was the gift and curse of inheriting a “no such thing as work-life balance” from my immigrant culture.

When I lost that career that I spent almost a decade nurturing and building due to political forces, I partially lost myself and the confidence I once commanded from being someone who always got the job done no matter what. Setbacks can make you doubt yourself and forget the purpose you once had. If you ever get here, It’s important to remember that a setback is an opportunity for you to step back and rechart your course.

The Change Made

My life has always been a constant evolution of ideas, experiences, and growth. I've tried my hand at various creative endeavours and have been fortunate to work on a number of projects that have positively impacted others. As I continue to learn and grow, I find it increasingly important to get back to documenting and sharing my experiences and knowledge.

When you are at your lowest, it’s easy to forget about all you’ve accomplished to get this far. Failing made me feel like I needed to start from scratch again and carve a new path for myself, so I did:

• I went back to school for international development and graduated with honours as someone who almost dropped out as an undergraduate student.

• I put my time back into passion projects, leading me to co-found Scarborough Made, which has grown into a recognizable community arts organization in Toronto’s East.

• I raised over 160,000 in grant funding to support creative projects and businesses after my master’s application was rejected because of my decade-old GPA.

• I started my creative firm SNCD (pronounced as the word Synced) as a full-time artist and creative entrepreneur during the pandemic to show others that it is possible to thrive in the creative economy.

Why this, Why Now?

My journey and experiences working across different industries and sectors have taught me a lot over the years. I want to share some of those insights and lessons that I’ve learned to highlight the change that’s been made.

As someone who wears a lot of hats, my work is spread across different platforms, so I wanted to create more of an open space where I can be candid about my successes, failures and everything in between, hoping that my stories and experiences will inspire and empower others to embrace their own creative paths.

Help Me Build This Community.

I envision this as more than just a personal newsletter. I see it as a way to build a supportive community of like-minded individuals and create a space which can act like a collaborative hub that asks questions and shares experiences to support people as they navigate the complexities of creativity and personal growth.

As I grow this new platform, you can expect me to share something with you once or twice a month with the goal of creating and curating new content as more people join my substack community.

Here's what you can expect by subscribing

• Personal stories from my journey as an artist & creative entrepreneur.

• Interviews with fellow creators, changemakers and entrepreneurs.

• An inside look into my unreleased creative works.

• Tips and resources to help you cultivate your path as a creative entrepreneur

• News & updates on projects I’m working on before it goes public.

I can't wait to embark on this adventure with you. If you’ve been following my work and are excited about joining me on this new platform, please consider becoming a paid subscriber and supporting my work as a creator & changemaker.

Doing so will give you insider updates, resources and exclusive content to fuel a community of people passionate about creativity, entrepreneurship and social impact.

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