How to Center Community Voice in Impact Storytelling

Learn how to tell stories about impact in ways that honor community experience and share narrative power.

About This Training

Organizations that serve communities often tell stories about them without including them in how those stories are shaped. This training teaches participants how to approach impact storytelling as a practice of shared narrative power: how to invite community members into the storytelling process, how to tell stories that honor complexity rather than reduce people to data points, and how to use storytelling as a tool for accountability rather than promotion.

What You'll Learn

• The difference between extractive storytelling and participatory storytelling
• How to invite community members into the storytelling process with clear consent and genuine partnership
• How to tell impact stories that honor complexity and avoid deficit framing
• How to balance funder expectations for data with community expectations for dignity
• How to build storytelling practices that are sustainable and community-centered

Practical Takeaways

• A set of principles for ethical impact storytelling
• A storytelling process you can use with community members
• Sample language for inviting participation and securing consent

Designed for: Communications staff, development directors, program managers, and anyone responsible for telling the story of their organization's impact.