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creative narrations
Annual Newsletter:  Highlights from an Amazing Year of Change

"In underserved communities we have a lot of stories that need to be told, but we lack the resources and technology. Creative Narrations has helped us seek creative and alternative ways for getting these stories out."
-Brenda Manuelito, Native People for Cancer Control

Dear friends and colleagues,

2008 was quite a year for all of us: a new president voted in, a new husband vowed in, and a new baby crawling around… Somehow among all that, we’ve managed to expand our multimedia work in the areas of public health, civic and adult education, and community building. We’re thrilled to share just a few of these Creative Narrations’ highlights with you in our 2008 year-end summary.
    
   hands  wedding

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Tasha's story:  the arsenic and the crab
Stories to Address Health Inequities:
 From youth obesity in rural Alaska to diabetes prevention in the heart of Seattle's Latino community, Creative Narrations continues the important work of helping communities create stories they can use to address systemic health inequities. In 2008, Creative Narrations' staff made three trips to Anchorage to work with Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, Native People for Cancer Control, and United National Indian Tribal Youth. Through a series of train the trainers and coaching opportunities, each of these organizations have built their skills to gather and share the varied real-life perspectives on what keeps Alaska Native communities healthy. In Seattle, the staff at SeaMar in the South Park neighborhood followed their initial workshop by producing a collective story calling for the state legislature to address the diabetes epidemic in the Latino community. We're inspired by the willingness of individuals to discuss how these diseases have impacted their families, and hopeful at the efforts to change the structures that perpetuate these illnesses in poor communities and communities of color.

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Mayra's story: la diabetes en mi sangre
 DSI

seamar
    
Stories for Civic Education:
The elections this past November revealed the power of engaging new voters. We were proud to do our part as Creative Narrations builds on its decade-plus of experience working in the area of civic and adult education. We held our fourth annual Digital Storytelling Institute with the Arizona Department of Adult Education. Through this intensive train-the-trainer series, adult educators learned to integrate multimedia, civics and language-curriculum that draws directly upon the life experience of their students. Creative writing and photography skills had a special emphasis in the training that we did with the folks at the Tucson Indian Center and San Xavier District, many of whom created stories about the histories and struggles of their community. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Right Question Project quietly continues its work of encouraging low-income individuals to ask questions with its innovative voter education methodology. Creative Narrations continues its partnership with RQP through consulting on their media strategy and documenting the stories of new voters.

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Thelma's story: two lands, one spirit

Budding & Building Partnerships:
In the Bay Area and Seattle, where Creative Narrations co-directors Jen Nowicki Clark and Natasha Freidus are based, we've been forging new partnerships and strengthening existing relationships with local media educators, producers, and activists. Probably the most exciting new partnership was Jen's marriage to Calvin Clark in November. Beyond the nuptials, Jen has been collaborating with the Center for Digital Storytelling through their workshops with Alameda CASA foster youth advocates and the Applied Research Center, which focuses its work on racial justice in the Bay Area.  Creative Narrations co-sponsored and presented at a gathering of local Bay Area practitioners and community members with PBS station KQED called "Digital Storytelling and 21st Century Skills".   In addition to working with Native People for Cancer Control in Seattle and Alaska, we've been supporting NPCC’s efforts to create a Center for Native Digital Storytelling which will reach Native communities throughout the country.

Up in the Northwest, Tasha has been actively involved with the Seattle Digital Storytelling Collaborative, a group of local storytellers who are in the midst of planning an event to correspond with May's International Day of Sharing Life Stories. Stay tuned for more information on that. In addition, Tasha served as a mentor and media instructor with Reel Grrls'  youth media program, and has been collaborating with other Seattle mothers to launch Media Mamas  to support the documentation of family stories.     
ak training  tic

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Reel Grrls:  a generation of consolidation
We look forward to continuing this work and more in 2009.
All the best to you in this new year!

    -Jen and Tasha
creative narrations
multimedia for community development
http://www.creativenarrations.net
tasha@creativenarrations.net