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About
- Current Projects
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Empowering and Building Community One Person at a Time
The Tucson Indian Center invited Creative Narrations to collaborate on a digital storytelling workshop with a group of local community members. Together with Josh Schachter Photography and writing coaches from TIC ArtsReach and the Owl and Panther Project, participants gathered to develop new ways to share their experiences orally, visually and in multi-media form. Watch Gertie's story and Anthony's story here!
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Take 3! The 3rd Annual AZ Adult Education Digital Storytelling Institute
After the success and energy of the 2006 and 2007 DSI, Creative Narrations will be returning to Tucson to facilitate another training in March! In collaboration with The Arizona Department of Adult Education and Pima College Adult Education, the workshop and follow-up support visits will bring digital storytelling to adult GED, ESL, and Job Training courses all over the state of Arizona.View sample stories
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Preventing Cancer Through Story
Jennifer Nowicki facilitated a Creative Narrations 3-day digital storytelling workshop with staff and affiliates from Native People for Cancer Control at the University of Washington in Seattle. By integrating digital stories into their work, NPCC continues to reach out to native populations in creative new ways as they teach about cancer prevention and screening programs in the communities. See more on pages 9-10 of the February 2008 newsletter!
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Lights,
Camera, Reel Grrls
Creative Narrations Co-Director, Natasha Freidus,
has teamed up with the renowned youth media program, Reel
Grrls in Seattle. Natasha will be acting as a lead mentor
in this innovative media literacy and video production program
for local grrls. Reel Grrls shares Creative Narrations approach
to media as a tool for empowerment and voice, with a special
focus on bringing girls to the director's table.
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Creating Stronger Communities
In order to increase awareness about the many outdoor, environmental, leadership and health programs they offer, the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension Program invited Creative Narrations co-director Jennifer Nowicki and Evan Goldberg to facilitate a 4-day train-the-trainer digital storytelling workshop with their staff. Every training brings its own surprises, but Jen, who is mildly afraid of heights, never expected to be climbing the ropes course herself to help participants gather images!
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Fen xiang gu shi
: Sharing Stories in China
While teaching abroad in 2007, Jennifer Nowicki of Creative Narrations led a digital storytelling workshop for staff and students of the Shantou University English Language Program in Southern China. The stories were not just a great way to preserve and share individual histories of young people in China today, but also provided a new method of teaching and practicing language skills. See an example!
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Stories
for Change
Creative Narrations, in collaboration with The
Center for Digital Storytelling and MassImpact,
just launched Stories for Change, the first online portal
for community digital storytelling. This site will allow workshop
facilitators to upload and access stories, exchange curriculum,
and dialogue online with other digital storytellers. Move
over youtube...
Take a look!
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Created
by Catalonia
From September 2006 to June of 2007, Creative Narrations
director, Natasha Freidus, will be working in conjunction
with the municipality of Vilanova i la Geltrú and The
Department of Communications at Universitat Rovira i Virgili
(URV) in Tarragona, to pilot and evaluate the digital storytelling
methodology in the province of Catalonia. This research project
will explore new models for citizen generated media in the
transition to Digital Terrestial Television. Natasha's stay
in Tarragona has been made possible with a Fulbright Fellowship.
Project Update * See
sample stories. |
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Project
Hope, Creating Sacred Spaces
Char Caver, adult educator at Project
Hope, was awarded the "Teacher of the Year"
in 2006 by the Boston Herald Foundation. As part of the award
she was given funding to engage in a professional development
activity. Char decided to go with digital storytelling. This
past summer, Char and her team of adult educators spent four
days working with Creative Narrations to put together a powerful
digital story documenting the transformation in their adult
education classroom. They hope to bring this methodology to
their adult learners this year. View
the story here! |
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Schott
Fellowship in Early Education
In the winter of 2006, The Schott Fellowship in Early
Education knew that they needed new ways to demonstrate the
power of their Fellowship. They contacted Creative Narrations,
and asked us to create both a website and an organizational
video for their program. The website,
designed by Sean Effel using a drupal platform, will allow
Schott staff to update the site themselves, manage events,
and upload new publications. The six-minute video, produced
by Julie
Mallozzi, will be used as a fundraising and outreach tool
for the Fellowship. |
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The
Arizona Adult Education Digital Storytelling Institute
Adult educators have long understood the value of
their students’ stories, stories packed with wisdom,
struggle, and achievement over adversity. Digital storytelling,
a process that allows students to document these stories using
new technology, is a natural next step for the field. The
Arizona Adult Education Digital Storytelling Institute brings
together cutting-edge technology, literacy, and the arts.
In collaboration with The
Arizona Department of Adult Education and
Pima College Adult Education, Creative Narrations trained
programs across the state this winter to bring digital storytelling
to GED, ESL, and Job Training courses.View
teacher stories now online! |
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Combatting
Substance Abuse and Diabetes
Tucson's Sunnyside Family Resource & Wellness Center in
conjunction with the Sunnyside and Elvira Advocates for Health
contracted with Creative Narrations to create a set of bilingual
multi-media presentations. These stories will be used by promotoras
working in Tucson's Southside to begin discussions regarding
diabetes and drug abuse. This summer, Project Export at the
University of Arizona's School for Public Health brought Creative
Narrations back for a "train the trainer" workshop.
View
example trainer story *
Diabetes Story *
Substance Abuse Story |
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Telling
Stories of Survival
In June of 2005, Creative Narrations completed the first year
of residency as a visiting artist with the South
Area Solomon Schechter Day School.The L’Chaim Project
was designed to teach children the stories of triumphs of Holocaust
survivors and how they rebuilt their lives after the most horrific
of times. Natasha Freidus, Jennifer Audley, and BlinkTank's
Tim Wright worked with seventh grade students on the arts of
oral history and videography. In year two of the project, students
learned to edit with i movie and created a DVD of their work.
View student produced videos here. |
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Community
Mapping in Somerville
In
the summer of 2005, Creative Narrations provided consulting
and training to the Somerville
Community Corporation in their mapping project of East Somerville.
Neighborhood residents created maps of their experiences in
the city incorporating still photography, audio narratives,
and other materials. SCC will use these maps to better understand
the patterns and experiences of neighborhood residents. In 2006,
we received a grant from the Somerville Arts Council to turn
this project into an interactive map.Take
a look! |
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Spreading
the Stories: New England Digital Storytelling Institute
Spreading the Stories is a “train the trainer”
program in the skills of digital
storytelling. In partnership with MassImpact,
Creative Narrations is offering an intensive training to learn
multimedia and storytelling skills to five local non-profits.
At the end of the training, each organization will have 1-2
digital stories and a work-plan for integrating digital storytelling
into their programs. Participating organizations include YearUp,
Sociedad
Latina, Dotwell,
Home, Inc.,
and Somerville
Community Access Television.
View
stories here! |
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Preventing
Inhalants in New England
The
New England Inhalant Abuse Prevention Coalition has been working
for two years to support the New England states in their efforts
to prevent inhalant abuse. Creative Narrations is developing
a multimedia website to document the history, the successes,
and the learnings from the past two years. The final
product features a series of video clips with leaders throughout
the states. |
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Documenting
the Right Questions...
Creative Narrations has teamed up again with
The
Right Question Project to create multimedia documentation
of RQP's work in early childhood settings. Take
a look at the interviews and stories. This project follows
on the heels of the highly successful,Better
Questions, Better Decisions Voter Education Initiative
(BQBD) of 2004. The goal of this Initiative was to create
a new, easily replicable model for more effectively engaging
low-income citizens as voters. Creative Narrations worked
with participants in BQBD workshops to create a series of
digital stories to stimulate dialogue with GED, job training,
and ESOL students around issues of citizenship and participation.
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Visiting
Trinidad and Tobago
In the winter of 2005, Creative Narrations had the privilege
of collaborating with iEarn
Trinidad & Tobago and the UNESCO
DigiArts Program to offer a series of multimedia workshops.
The goal of this two-day training was to provide a basic introduction
to digital photography and audio in order for affiliated UNESCO
schools and groups to effectively participate in the UNESCO
Digi-Arts portal. Creative Narrations also led a workshop
for The Coalition of Women NGO's where women leaders learned
the basics of web-design. Elements of these workshops were
adapted and presented at a Carribean wide workshop to teach
youth leaders how to communicate around the problem of HIV/AIDS.
Click
to see examples & photos.
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Arts
Incentives Program
How can digital storytelling support arts-based therapies?
The Arts
Incentives Program, with support from MassImpact,
has set out to add digital storytelling to their toolbox of
visual and performing arts. In January of 2005, Creative Narrations
led a train-the-trainer workshop for A.I.P. staff and volunteers
who integrated their own art, poetry, puppetry and performace
into their pieces. A.I.P. is leading workshops with participating
youth this spring.
To
see examples of trainer stories, click
here.
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| About
- 2004 Projects |
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Youth
in Transition: Spartanburg, South Carolina
In December of 2004, Creative Narrations led a four-day
workshop to produce stories by youth recently released from
the prison and foster care systems. In collaboration with
the Upstate Urban League, and sponsored by the Spartanburg
County Foundation's Strengthening Voices Initiative, participants
addressed a wide range of issues in their pieces. They plan
to show their work as peer education tools in the schools,
churches, prisons, and in after-school programs. View
the stories
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Connecting
Through Story:
Storylink Curriculum Development and Community Testing
In
collaboration with MIT’s Center for Reflective Community
Practice, InventMedia, and Third World Majority, Creative
Narrations recently completed the development of online digital
storytelling curriculum and conducting community site testing
for Storylink.
StoryLink is an online community for digital stories that
will allow members of the site to store, search for, and save
digital stories; embed personal reflections to their stories;
attach feedback and resources to each digital story; and communicate
with other Web site members about issues raised in the stories.
See
photos from the San Diego Train the Trainers Workshop! |
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Documenting
Free to Grow
In the fall of 2004, Creative Narrations guided the staff
of New Britain's Free to Grow Initiative through a digital
storytelling process. Free to Grow representatives learned
to develop a script, gather still images, artifacts, and video
clips, and visualize a final piece. Creative Narrations then
edited the material together into a five minute organizational
story that is currently being uses in outreach and promotion.
View
Free to Grow's digital story in Quicktime
or Windows
Media Player versions! |
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Healing
Through Story:
Close to Home Domestic Violence Prevention Initiative
In
winter of 2003, Creative Narrations began a multiyear training
project with Close
to Home. Close to Home, a Dorchester-based nonprofit organization,
provides resources and training for communities' informal
social and kinship networks – family members, friends
and neighbors – so they can deal with domestic violence
and begin changing social norms to prevent it.
In December of 2003, a group of affiliates representing local
organizers and service providers came together for a powerful
three-day workshop at the Codman Square Technology Center.
Sharing how family violence has affected them both personally
and professionally, participants created a series of stories
that will be used throughout organizations to continue dialogue
around the connections between community development and family
violence.
This
train the trainer series will include development and implementation
for a new youth program and a multimedia evaluation component.
For more information, contact Natasha
Freidus or Aimee
Thompson.
View
Aimee Thompson's digital story
View
other Close to Home stories
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The
B.E.S.T. end of the year video ever!
In
April of 2004, Commonwealth
Corporation contracted with Creative Narrations to create
an end of the year video for The BEST Initiative (Building
Essential Skills Through Training). The BEST Initiative consists
of seven projects around the state offering integrated
basic, vocational, and employability skills training
to young people aiming establish themselves with jobs
and career advancement potential. Creative Narrations,
collaborating with JaModi Robinson of Digital Expressions,
visited each site to work with youth representatives and sponsored
a one-day production workshop on May 25th for all sites to
try their hands at editing. This video was featured at the
B.E.S.T. Year-End Celebration on June 9th. Commonwealth Corporation
later contracted with Creative Narrations to create an instructional
video on B.E.S.T.'s innovative approach to integrated curriculum.
This project was done in collaboration with PointB
Productions.
See
an example of the BEST Older Youth Video
Requires
Windows Media Player
See clip from
BEST Initiative's "Integrated Curriculum in Action!"
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Spreading
the Hope:
Project in development
What
gives us hope for change in a world of pervasive apathy and
despair? Spreading the Hope is a multiyear, multi-site, collaborative
documentary project designed for local and national leaders
in the area of social change to tell stories of possibility.
In
today's world, the media is flooded with accounts of what
is wrong. Rarely do we see stories that document success and
possibility in the field of social change. As a result, it
is often difficult to believe that things can change, that
hope is out there. Spreading the Hope works to counter this
reality by providing social change organizations with the
skills to tell their own story, in their own voices, through
their own medium. Spreading the Hope thus addresses a fundamental
problem lying at the intersection of media arts and social
change efforts by letting people know that change can happen,
that change is happening every day.
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