It’s a vibrant community where testimony is cultivated, creativity is nurtured, respectful discourse is fostered, and change is created one powerful, purposeful narrative at a time.
A narrative advocacy training at the Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy.
We are survivors, witnesses, writers, advocates, artists, and allies calling injustice by its name and calling the world to confront it.
Because we are here to be heard.
During our signature two-day writing workshop, participants read and discuss testimonial writing from across history, social movements, and genres; take part in a series of real-time writing exercises; and benefit from moderated, trauma-informed workshopping of their writing. We currently offer workshops for survivors of gender-based violence; immigrants and refugees; those impacted by economic injustice and income inequality; and those impacted by racial injustice, particularly within the criminal justice system. We run workshops for both adults and youth.
Our Center for Story & Witness Narrative Advocacy Training Program was created to help allies, advocates, and activists, working on a wide range of social justice issues, think in new ways about the power, purpose, and ethics of storytelling; to consider how language and word choice can help us break through ideological or partisan barriers; and to consider which stories they seek to tell in their work.
We partner with world-class artists, writers, and content creators who are as passionate about human rights as they are about artistic excellence. Together, we bring the stories developed through our writing workshops to life in powerful, provocative, change-creating ways.
Writers are at the heart of all that we do at Center for Story & Witness. Browse just a few of the notable books our workshop participants, staff, Advisory Board, and Launch and Leadership Circle have written, and discover your next favorite read.
Through our year-long Teacher Training Institute & Fellows Program, we’re developing a new generation of testimonial writing workshop instructors and facilitators. Our end goal? Cultivating leaders deeply connected to the communities we work with, so as to expand our Center for Story & Witness programming at the grassroots level.
We’ve worked on four continents, in 12 countries, and over 40 U.S. states.
COLLABORATIVE
Brought our programs and lectures to over 250 grassroots organizations.
Trained over 26,000 activists through our narrative advocacy trainings.
Graduated over 1,400 writers from our testimonial writing program.
Helped change state and federal law through our coalition-driven, story-focused advocacy efforts.
Bearing Witness – which is being curated for us by Randy Jayne Rosenberg, founder of Art Works for Change and the former chief curator of The World Bank collection, with support from Tiphanie Spencer of Chicago’s Hana Pietri Gallery –...
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The Stories We Tell, our testimonial writing workshop for survivors of gender-based violence, is coming to Chicago in October. Apply today! Developed to help those who have lived through or witnessed gender-based violence or other human rights violations use...
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During How Do We Write Our Way Out of This? — a Center for Story & Witness facilitated dialogue at the 41st Annual Printers Row Lit Fest — five writers who are also movement makers will come together to consider...
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On September 10th, 2026, Patti Smith – the iconic singer, poet, essayist, and literary citizen – will receive the 2026 Harold Washington Literary Award in Chicago. This prestigious award, named for Chicago’s first black mayor, will be presented by Chicago’s Near South...
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Today, more than ever, the stories of those most impacted by social injustice need to be heard. But how do we challenge those who seek to “disappear” stories that speak truth to power? And how can we use our own...
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At a time when funding for survivor-centered organizations is tightening, public conversations about basic rights are increasingly polarized, and those of us doing work at the intersection of art, advocacy, and social justice are under unprecedented attack, the mission of...
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