Narrative Advocacy Trainings

ADVOCACY TRAINING

We’re not waiting for change. We’re

working

for it

working

for it

working

Social change. It’s not enough to want it. Or even to work for it. We also need to strategize for it. Our narrative advocacy trainings at Center for Story & Witness (formerly The Voices and Faces Project) were created to help allies, advocates, and activists, working on a wide range of social justice issues, reflect critically on how to use story to create social change.

About the narrative advocacy training experience

Custom-created in partnership with and in response to the needs of our grassroots allies across the globe, our narrative advocacy trainings challenge participants to 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.

Our narrative advocacy trainings have been offered at the Clinton Presidential Center, the Buffett Center for International and Comparative Studies at Northwestern University, the University of Southern California School of Social Work, End Violence Against Women International, the Obama Fellows Program of the Obama Foundation at the University of Chicago, and the RefuSHE School in Nairobi, Kenya, among many other educational institutions and NGOs.

Available narrative advocacy trainings

Our Stories are Our Power: The power, purpose, and ethics of storytelling.

Survivors of gender-based violence from across the globe are increasingly using their names, faces, and stories to change legal and social responses to sexual violence and trafficking. How do we make the most of, and build on, this moment?

How can we effectively use our testimonies to call the world not only to compassion but to measurable political action? And what lessons can we learn from history’s most effective storytellers? During “Our Stories Are Our Power,” an interactive presentation and moderated discussion, participants explore real-world examples of how survivors are using their personal testimony to create change; consider new strategies and mediums for their own storytelling; and reflect on how to make the personal universal when speaking truth to power.

Effective Storytelling is Ethical Storytelling: An interactive workshop.

During this interactive, half-day workshop we consider how most ethically to share the stories we have lived through or witnessed; why “informed consent” is critical and how best to secure it; how our word and image choices can illuminate, or inadvertently obscure, critical truths; and why balancing truth and hope is at the heart of ethical storytelling.

With a focus on using “whole person” narratives that show that survivors are shaped, but not defined, by what has been done to them, “Effective Storytelling is Ethical Storytelling” is ideal for advocates seeking to share stories in a mindful, and moral, way.

Storytellers, Opinion Shapers, and Subversives: Discover your change style.

Are you a storyteller? An opinion shaper? A subversive? Or none – or all – of the above? Discover your “change style” and become a more effective, strategic advocate.

During this interactive workshop, participants will consider effective change styles throughout history and social justice movements; reflect on how and in what ways they are most comfortable creating change; be challenged to move beyond their change comfort zone (or embrace it more fully); and think deeply about how to leverage a range of change styles within their organization or social movement.

Personal, Powerful, & Political: The art and craft of the personal essay.

Essay and opinion piece writing remains a powerful form of narrative advocacy. How do we craft essays that make the personal political and universal?

What makes for an effective opinion piece? What rhetorical strategies can help us meet readers where they are, while remaining true to our positions? And how do we write about the injustices we have witnessed in a way that honors and uplifts our subjects, even as we speak to their pain? This three-part training is ideal for established and emerging advocates seeking to create change through the power of the pen.

Creating Change: Testimony and the uses of storytelling in education and advocacy.

During this day-long training, developed for educators and advocates seeking to use storytelling effectively in their work, we focus on best practices in generating and sharing testimony, think about the role of testimony in educating the public on social justice issues, and explore novel ways to incorporate testimony and storytelling into teaching and advocacy practices across disciplines.

Participants engage in real-time writing exercises, reflect on their own stories as educators and advocates, and participate in a series of seminar-style conversations about how to use story as a vehicle for change in educational settings, advocacy scenarios, and beyond.

Meeting people where they are and moving them towards justice during times of political conflict.

Our politics have never been more fraught. Which is why, in an increasingly partisan, identity-driven world, it is more important than ever to find new ways to “meet people where they are.”

During this interactive workshop and moderated dialogue we explore how word choices can open people up (or shut them down) during issue-oriented conversations, what brain science has to teach us about breaking through ideological barriers, how language can cue ideology (and why avoiding that can make sense), and why listening matters as much as speaking during times of political conflict.

Fighting for Justice & Joy: How survivors of gender-based violence are changing the world, and themselves, by sharing their stories.

In the last decade, survivor testimonies have changed the way the world sees the issue of sexual violence. The powerful act of speaking out has also changed the ways survivors see themselves. But why are stories so powerful? And how can we share them strategically, in a way that calls the world not just to feel but to act.

In “Fighting for Justice & Joy,” an interactive lecture, the audience will be introduced to eight extraordinary survivors who are using their stories in innovative, barrier-breaking, and sometimes even joyful ways, creating measurable legal and social change through the power of narrative.

Marketing a Movement: Creating survivor-focused media campaigns.

For those who work daily on human rights issues, the causes and consequences of violence and oppression are clear. But how can we get the general public to see what we see?

“Marketing a Movement,” a half-day capacity-building training, was developed to help allies do just that. Created with the support of NoVo Foundation to support those seeking to “think differently” about the role of marketing and media in social movements, to learn best practices for creating public service campaigns, and to understand how to work effectively with private sector partners. Ideal for advocates, agencies, and movement leaders who seek to use media and marketing communications to change minds, hearts, and public policy.

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What participants say about our award-winning narrative advocacy trainings

“Our Stories Are Our Power” was a fresh perspective on the power, danger, and ethics of storytelling. Students taking part in this program were enlightened to the possibilities of using storytelling to make a difference not only in their human rights work in non-governmental organizations across the globe, but in their lives upon returning home.

NICOLE PATEL

Program Officer, Buffett Center for International and Comparative Studies at Northwestern University

By engaging the audience in real-world examples of how story has changed minds and laws, and focusing on actionable ways that advocates and policymakers can leverage the power of the media, the trauma-informed team at The Voices and Faces Project (now Center for Story & Witness) offers a unique storytelling training that provides tools we can use to change the way the world responds to gender-based violence.

JOANNE ARCHAMBAULT

President, End Violence Against Women International

“Creating Change: Using Storytelling in Education & Advocacy,” is a workshop that didn’t just inform the educators who took part in it at University of Southern California. It inspired them. Storytelling has increasingly become a buzzword in higher education. This workshop reminded our participants that doing it ethically takes care, thought, and a deep understanding of the role narrative has played in human rights discourse throughout history.

ANNALISA ENRILE

Professor, University of Southern California School of Social Work

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