Tasha's blog

Sixteen storytellers. One small computer lab. The lunch caterers decided to go out of business. A power outage for hours on the last day. The barriers were many, the energy high. Somehow, after a lot of hard work and a bit of magic, ten new digital stories were born in July. This workshop, sponsored by the Susan G. Komen for the Cure's local King County grantees, introduced new trainers to digital storytelling. Participants represented the local Department of Public Health, grassroots orgnanizing efforts, hospitals, and community clinics all working to reduce breast cancer in communities of color. All are already hard at work, introducing their clients and patients to their work and listening as the stories fly forth. View Marilyn's story about her motivation to prevent senseless deaths from breast cancer. View Karry's story about the struggle to be a parent with a child with disabilities.

Tobacco. HPV. Breast Cancer. Heart Disease. These were just a few topics a new cadre of digital storytelling trainers from Seattle's International District addressed in their June, 2010 training. Community health advocates and educators have already begun to bring new media tools to their youth programs, diabetes outreach, and other programming. They are now creating bilingual versions of their stories in Vietnamese, Tagaolog, Cantonese and Korean to show within their respective communities. In addition, several new trainers served as "coaches" with the Komen Foundation training in July, observing, recording audio, and assisting new storytellers. View Christine's story by clicking here!

"What an intense three days! But somehow arriving back at my desk this morning - I feel like I've been on vacation.
It was SO nice to have those days to be creative." Workshop participant.

On a rare, three consecutive days of sun last week, we hunkered down with a super group of new storytellers. As part of the Seattle dStory Collaborative's first ever public workshop for local non-profits, we helped reps from Sea Mar, The Center for Health Training, and the Children's Home Society create short multimedia stories. We thought participants might choose to tell stories directly related to their workplace; instead all chose to focus on personal issues with the goal of helping their clients or patients create their own stories down the road. Everyone brought their own laptops and free software, in order to make it accessible for future work. While this was the first dStory Collaborative workshop, we're thinking it won't be the last. 

This May, the Seattle DStory Collaborative is going to offer a workshop for local non-profits.  Staff of community organizations will create their own personal narratives and learn how to use this powerful medium for advocacy and education.   Co-led by Creative Narrations' Natasha Freidus and Antioch University's Elizabeth Burke and Sue Woehrlin, this workshop marks the first of its kind in the area. Download registration form and more information here. Contact us if you have questions.