Welcome!
This publication is intended to introduce readers to the powerful role that storytelling can play in community planning.
A printed version of this work also exists, but given the unconventional, citizen-driven nature of this approach, we felt it needed to be a living document on the Web, where people can interact with the content, question it, challenge it, add to it, and in doing so, create an even more valuable resource for those interested in nurturing and sustaining the unique character of their communities in the face of rapid growth and change.
We invite you to discuss the chapters below with us and contribute to this ongoing experiment in radical civic engagement to “fuel positive, collective action” in communities across the country.
Join us. Steer the change.
CHAPTERS
1: The Story of Storytelling 2: Why We Need Storytelling 3: Storytelling in Action 4: Listening, The Transformational Moment 5: Into the Future
Introduction
Re-Weaving the Community, Creating the Future
Storytelling at the Heart and Soul of Healthy Communities
“If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” — Rudyard Kipling
The Orton Family Foundation’s Heart & Soul Community Planning approach calls for nothing less than sweeping change: a bottom-up, across-the-board retooling of planning in cities and towns across America. The singular times we live in demand it. Citizens, increasingly, are calling for it as they reclaim their voice to shape the future of the places they call home.
The Story of Storytelling
We brought data. Lots of data. We all brought arguments based on the zoning regulations, traffic stipulations, and planning requirements. And then we positioned ourselves squarely on one side of the development line and the other—transform or preserve the historic structures and surrounding lands. We challenged each other, questioned one another’s numbers, hoarded information, lobbied this neighbor or that until little neighborliness remained. Differences deepened into divides. Distrust settled like a shroud over a community that had long prided itself on being friendly. Not only did we lose the historic site, we lost one another.
Why We Need Storytelling
These are confusing times. Rural towns in the United States are becoming increasingly diverse while paradoxically resembling one another more and more. As independent businesses and vibrant downtowns melt into the repetitive sprawl of housing estates and chain-store malls, our sense of place and space is transforming through virtual environments of computer and cell phone and augmented reality. Our sense of community is, if not askew, then morphing into something we have yet to grasp.
Storytelling in Action
In October 2009, Victor, Idaho (population around 1,000) filled Pierre’s, its historic theater, for a first-ever citywide storytelling event. People came out to hear three longtime residents tell stories about what they found special about Victor. They came to enjoy digital stories made from interviews with residents, young and old, from all points of the community compass. They came to meet one another and get their first taste of story circles. The ninety or so people, one attendee commented, represented the widest spectrum from the small city that she had seen together in the fourteen years she had lived in Victor.
Listening: The Transformational Moment
During a recent storytelling training, the story-sharer sat among a group of eager volunteers learning to conduct story interviews. The older man tipped back in his chair and slowly moved into his story of coming to the valley as a boy, how those early years had shaped his love for the woods, the mountains, the wide wild spaces of the valley. His story was simple, straightforward. It was the telling that drew them in: his voice, his facial expressions and his body language radiated a deep affection for his town and its people; his sense of humor, that warmed up as he grew at ease, invited them into his story. The volunteers were riveted.
Into the Future
Weaving community and building the future requires more than the details of history, geography, and demographics; it requires more than considering the values, needs and desires of the various groups and individuals within a town; it above all demands community members coming together to discuss, weigh, deliberate, synthesize and act on its realities and dreams.
Appendices
What follows is a general overview only and not a guide to storytelling methods. See the Orton Family Foundation website for Additional Storytelling Tips, Methods, Examples and Resources. Also see the Foundation’s paper, “Storytelling As Told in Our Heart & Soul Towns”.