*All training times are Eastern United States.
For centuries, we’ve told each other our stories to build connection and community. During a story circle, a small group of people gather to each share a personal story about a specific topic or theme. In a story circle, there is no audience; everyone shares, and everyone listens with complete attention. Once everyone has told their story, participants comment on the strengths and power they see in others’ stories and draw connections between others’ stories and their own. They are a powerful tool for seeing others and for being seen.
Story circles have a rich history – from Indigenous communities who used them to draw out communal experiences and make decisions for the good of the community to the Free Southern Theater that used story circles during the Civil Rights Movement to open dialogue around the topic of race and create theater pieces to reflect those stories back to larger communities.
The purpose of a story circle is to build or strengthen a sense of community within a group, to examine differences, and / or to explore social challenges through our own lives. Organizations can use story circles to build and strengthen a sense of community between their staff members and/or between community members, as well as to gain insights and perspectives from community members on social and policy issues that inform the organization’s services and advocacy work.
During this workshop, participants will first participate in a story circle and then learn how to facilitate one themselves. Note: Story circles are a community-building and perspective-gathering tool, NOT a tool for gathering stories for marketing purposes. The workshop is 4-hours long, which will include a break in the middle. Spaces are limited to keep this workshop small and interactive.
Who should attend this training? Anyone who wants to learn more about this community-building tool.
*The registration fee is per person. If you’d like to register more than one person from your organization, please enter the number of people you are registering in the “quantity” field below. If you want to register more than three people from your team, please reach out to book a custom training for your organization instead. After registering, you will receive a calendar invite within 48 hours that contains the training Zoom link.