How to Partner with Individuals & Communities to Tell Their Own Stories

Recorded
How to Partner with Individuals & Communities to Tell Their Own Stories
with Kate Marple


Originally Held Virtually Thursday, October 12, 2023
 

Stories are critical to social change. They show us the human stakes of policy decisions. They offer windows into experiences unlike our own. They make us stop and think, because they first make us feel. For organizations that use storytelling to help change the world, the conversation can’t begin and end with how to tell compelling stories. Organizations need to consider: (1) the impact that sharing can have on the storyteller; (2) how the story is framed; and (3) how people and communities are represented in and affected by those stories.

This was an interactive webinar, exploring tangible strategies that organizations can adopt to partner with people who use their services to tell whole-person, empathetic narratives about individuals and broader issues. This webinar was a mix of presentation and small group discussions in Zoom break-out rooms; the latter were not recorded. 
 

Kate Marple (she/her/hers) is the principal consultant at Who Tells the Story? where she helps nonprofit organizations create and adopt practices to ensure that the stories they tell are shaped by and benefit people with lived experiences. Her mission is to change how nonprofits approach communications and storytelling—from who is at the table shaping communications values and goals to how people are asked to share their personal stories. From how interviews are conducted to what informed consent in storytelling looks like. From what stories are being told to whose perspective those narratives truly reflect. She believes that communicating for social change can lead to both short- and long-term good and be empowering for communities at the same time if we prioritize partnership and ceding power.

For nearly a decade, Kate directed communications for the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership, where she helped create a national movement to reduce health disparities by making access to legal services a standard part of quality health care. She was also previously a communications officer with the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and the Children’s Mental Health Campaign. Kate is currently a lecturer in the Department of Human Services at Northeastern University where she developed and teaches an undergraduate course in nonprofit communications, and she is the co-director of The Perpetual Visitors Theatre Company in Boston, Massachusetts.

Registration Rates
Each registration fee covers one participant.

MIE Subscribers: $100
Non-subscribers: $150


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For other questions, including accessibility accommodations, contact Jared Smith, Director of Programs, MIE, at jared@mielegalaid.org.