Our Stories
Demonstrating Change through Storytelling
Are you a frontline worker who hears participants telling their stories everyday and is wanting to harness them, but with concerns about ethical considerations?
Are you are a funder who needs to justify your support for a specific program or project?
Are you an executive director seeking funding and/or needing a meaningful way to report to funders?
Are you an artist who is interested in working with community organizations on health promotion and wanting to enhance your ability to use stories to evaluate the outcomes of your collaborative work?
Through this site we invite you to explore storytelling as a powerful way to communicate the outcomes of community based health promotion work. Stories bring important qualitative indicators to complement quantitative indicators of change. Stories connect mind and heart, funder and fundee, intention and action.
Discover the impact of storytelling through the insights and stories of a community capacity building initiative – the Our Stories conference, held in Vancouver, BC in April 2007.
What you will find here:
- About the Our Stories Conference – Learn more about this joint venture of Vancouver Coastal Health’s SMART Fund and Aboriginal Health Initiative Program. You’ll find a Brief Description ofOur Stories, and information about its Origins, Purpose and Process. More»
- What Happened at the Conference - This section shares information, videos and stories from the Our Stories conference. Explore the Keynotes and Plenary Presentations, Showcase, and Exhibition, as well as pointers from many of conference’s 20+ Workshops. More»
- Initial Learnings – “All learning is through stories.” “The shortest distance between a human being and the Truth is a story.” “Telling the story changes the story.” Explore what mattered most for participants regarding Storytelling to Demonstrate Change. Here too you’ll find critical reflections on the Process of creating the Our Stories conference. More»
- How We Documented the Our Stories Conference – Here we share the variety of ways we captured what happened and participants’ responses, and why we did what we did - along with a sample responses. In addition to Paper Evaluation Forms, we created a Graffiti Wall, engaged a Neutral Observer, and invited participants to tell stories of Most Significant Change. More»
- What’s Happening Now and Next – What seeds have been planted? What new shoots are emerging? And what stories are different stakeholders sharing about their work? More»
- FAQ – Answers to the most frequent questions about the Our Stories initiative. More»
- Resources – including websites, articles, and books. Over time we plan to add evaluation tools and examples of program designs that integrate storytelling. More»
- Contact – How you can reach us, especially with your stories, tips, and resources about storytelling to demonstrate change. More»
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