This document provides an overview of a storytelling workshop that aims to use stories and storytelling to build community and envision a sustainable future. The workshop covers why storytelling is important, different types of stories and mediums, techniques for facilitating story circles, and planning next steps like matching stories to goals and mapping community groups and capacities. The goal is to use stories to celebrate the past and present while encouraging active citizenship, reconciliation, and new thinking about the community's future.

1. Storytelling Overview Workshop: Starksboro April 14, 2009 Digital Explorations for Orton Family Foundation When we dream alone, It’s just a dream. But when we dream together, It’s the beginning of a new reality. ~Brazilian Proverb

2. HOUR ONE: Overview HOUR TWO: Trying it out HOUR THREE: Planning the Project

3. Why Storytelling? "There is no change greater than a community discovering what it cares about." Meg Wheatley "Stories of place … indicate past and present sustainable or unsustainable relationships , and thus provide the basis and means for analysis of future sustainable directions of change . The many and diverse regional stories must be told and listened to before they can be weaved and transformed into a new regional story , and before a region can imagine a new and sustainable way into the future . Realising and celebrating a sense of place encourages active citizenship and builds social capital , which is essential for the sustainability of a region, and provides a secure foundation for approaching the future. It could also be a powerful vehicle for reconciliation , with differing groups realising that they are linked by the same sense of concern for and attachment to a region. " K. Longley, 2002, Stories for Sustainability, Sustainability Forum, Perth

4. Sense of Place Physical Built environment Natural environments Geography Climate Natural resources Non-physical Human community History Cultural heritage Spirituality Heart & Soul

5. What Can Stories & Storytelling Do for Us? Bonding & Bridging *Community engagement *Reconciliation *Sense of belonging Transmission of Culture *Lessons of the past *Realities of the present *Hopes for the future Refer also to Orton’s Document: Why Storytelling?

6. The Story Spiral C E L E B R A T E L I S T E N S H A R E B U I L D T R U S T

7. Map & Set Goals Consider Story Options: how they match community & goals Get Realistic about Resources & Capacity Plan Waves: Moving from bonding to harvesting to dialogue to active civic participation while weaving in art projects The Four Phases

8. Mapping & Goal Setting completed Storytelling Options matched Storytelling Capacity matched Inside the Storytelling

9. Original photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/yinto/3213182939 Challenges!

10. Outreach: Engaging the Full Community Locating & Engaging the Hubs Matching story type & scenario to least likely participants

11. Moving Beyond the Past While Honoring It

12. What we mean by Story Values Themes & Issues Understanding the Languages We Speak Original Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/h-k-d

13. “ The situation is the context or circumstance, sometimes the plot; the story is the emotional experience…:the insight, the wisdom, the thing one has come to say.” Vivian Gornick (p. 170 The Situation and the Story

14. Learning to Listen: What is the story about? What is it REALLY about?

15. Finding the Story Asking Great Questions finding & entering the space within the story

16. Town-wide Participation Volunteer Burn-out Vs.

17. Thorny Issues Original Photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattpettengill/2880947744/ Uncomfortable  Disruptive Finding Common Ground Trust Respect Welcome

18. We can find the extraordinary in the ordinary or the ordinary in the extraordinary

19. The Importance of an Inclusive Process From Glasgow’s Imagining the Future of the City http://www.demos.co.uk/themes/~community/view//pg/2 From a Workshop at Woods Hole http://www.greenmuseum.org/generic_content.php?ct_id=268 Choosing a wide Range of Story options

20. A Realistic View of the Process Moving past Listening Dialogue Sharing Weaving in other approaches

21. Matching Stories To the Project

22. Text-based Stories Newsletter Community Almanac Front Porch Forum Self-published book Community displays: bulletin boards, roadside boxes & benches, etc. Contests: essays, postcard stories In combination with visual media & with public readings- radio or live events

23. Minnesota http://ww2.startribune.com/news/variety/voices/flash/index.shtml Vermont Young Writers Project http://youngwritersproject.org/ Examples

24. Community Almanac www.communityalmanac.org

25. Visual Stories Visual artwork ( exhibitions , murals, posters, quilts etc) Slide stories ( online or at events) Postcards & ecards Comics Calendars

26. Art & Soul Installations Murals Vancouver http://www.cacv.ca/pages/mural.html Face Up: North Carolina http://cds.aas.duke.edu/faceup/

27. Exhibitions: In Town and Online Minnesota http://www.mnhs.org/exhibits/lakestreet/ Alaska: Making films & screening them

28. Audio Stories Personal narratives Interviews/oral histories Story circles Audio theater stories Story booths & events Story tours The Sounds of Starksboro Community Almanac Community radio Combined with visual media

29. Story Tours Murmur Project http://murmurtoronto.ca/ ArtMobs http://mod.blogs.com/art_mobs/ JHKunstler’s Walking Tour of Paris http://kunstlercast.com/shows/ KunstlerCast_56_Virtual_Tour_Paris.html http://www.ausculti.org/storytour.html

30. Multimedia Stories Voicethread ; Soundslide ; Collage ; Digital Stories; Hypertext

31. Digital Stories Online Tours Kiosks Theater Movie Night Set into Other Events Alberta Community Walk http://www.communitywalk.com/calgary/alberta/my_first_neighborhood/map/140666 Ukiah PlaceMeant http://www.storymapping.org/placemeant.html

32. Youth Engagement Skowhegan, Maine http://www.msad54.org/district/placedbaseded/index.shtml Voices: Arizona Youth http://www.voicesinc.org/

33. Neighborhood & City-wide Story Circles Walking Story Circles Thematic Events Site-Specific Events Celebrations

34. Using Stories in Facilitated Dialogue Events Add data Incorporate visualizations

35. Not-So-Expected Stories List stories Sounds of Starksboro Image-Only Stories Poems, Maps Collaborative Stories Postcards, Story Mosaics/Quilts, Wishing Walls Wish Book, Traveling S torybook A Day in the Life of Starksboro Story Quests Guerilla Storytelling (Performance) Stories in the Landscape Kiosk Bulletin Board Murmur-type project Tours Story boxes, story benches Original Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/jessedraper

36. Stirring the Story Pot Original Photo by tp://www.flickr.com/photos/thomashawk Trying it out: Story Circles

37. Original Image by http://www.flickr.com/photos/alternatewords/2151355801 Getting the Creative Juices Flowing: Playful Story Exercises

38. What comes next? (In your Starksboro setting) A Lesson from Comics Writers

39. What role do the physical details of space & place play in the story? Could this story be told about any other place? What is the relationship between the physical and nonphysical elements of Starksboro? The Senses, The Place

40. Using role play, we’ll explore storytelling as an effective means of bringing people together to share stories , to harvest values , and to thread them into dialogue about the future of the community. A. Story Circle Role Play : Story Hotspots Four participants (preferably with little or no experience with story circles) will share 2-minute stories about a place on the map that they associate with stories. B. Value Harvest : What did you hear? What resonated? Stickies (and Wordle--Wordle.net) C. Deepening the Harvest : Relationships, Themes and Issues-- Clustering and Sunray charts D. Finding the Issue for a Facilitated Dialogue : Using a simple matrix , we’ll sort the issues, and select one to engage with in a short facilitated dialogue. Story Circles PLUS

41. Harvesting Values

42. Finding Connections Between our Stories

43. Searching for Common Ground & Recognizing Differences

44. Stickies and Wordle (wordle.net)

45. Second Round: Grouping & Getting Specific

46. Round Three: Sorting the Issues for a Facilitated Dialogue actionable disruptive urgent less pressing

48. Mapping Informal & Formal Groups, Identities , Storytelling Capacity

49. Timelines and Subcommittees: Planning & Outreach

51. Plan Well & Expect Changes