Group items tagged

"Story-based strategy is a participatory approach that links movement building with an analysis of narrative power and places storytelling at the center of social change.  "

We face an entangled communications challenge. Becoming a sustainable city is less a technological issue than one of mindset, understanding and behavioural. Too many people still believe there is no problem. How can this be overcome? Do we approach it by engendering fear, cajoling, or persuasion? By providing evidence of the threats or examples of good practices? Do we jolt people into focus by ascending graphs of problems or imagery of iconic events like Katrina or Superstorm Sandy? It is best to show how the shift is doable and already happening and that those at the forefront have a better life economically and socially. The image of the sustainable city needs to feel as emotionally satisfying as the lure of consumer culture.

Our Vision: When we empower underrepresented populations to effectively tell their stories, we engage communities in dialogue and positive action. This process strengthens community cohesion and provides pathways for increased communication, cooperation, and respect. Our Mission: To challenge, strengthen, and connect our diverse communities through the transformative power of the individual voice. What We Believe: Stories make change possible. Stories open minds and inspire action. Stories create pathways. Since 2003, Hidden Voices has collaborated with underrepresented communities to create award-winning works that combine narrative, mapping, performance, music, digital media, animation, and interactive exhibits to engage audiences and participants in explorations of difficult issues.  Hidden Voices creates venues where stories from those rarely seen and heard by mainstream society take center stage.  These life-changing stories provide insight about identity, place, and access.  They help us understand the unrecognized, the unfamiliar, the displaced and forgotten within and among us.  A Hidden Voices project encourages deep listening; expansive dialogue, and inspired action.  Hidden Voices believes in the power of stories to transform our communities and our policies. Hidden Voices is a registered 501 (c) 3 non-profit, with more than 100 volunteers and contributing professionals developing two to three projects annually.

work with communities to tell great stories that inspire, activate and enliven our democracy. We believe that communities thrive when they draw on participants' personal experiences and local cultures. By telling stories-whether in the form of performance, radio, video, or other media-communities build power, envision new democratic possibilities, and change culture and policy. Our work is located at the intersection of arts, technology, and social change.

As our politics and public life have become increasingly divisive and toxic, too many Americans no longer see their realities reflected and no longer believe that they can make a difference. Real progress in communities can be hard to come by. And yet, across the country, people yearn to believe that we can get things done together and make hope real for everyone. It is this belief in people's innate ability to come together and create authentic hope, that sparked a then 27-year-old Richard C. Harwood to found The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation and dedicate himself to making the case for a different kind of public life and politics. For more than 20 years, through innovation, on-the-ground efforts, and ground-breaking research, we know what it takes to get things done in communities and strengthen our civic culture. We help people develop into Public Innovators, build Boundary Spanning Organizations, grow common spaces for innovation and learning, and cultivate the conditions, norms, and productive narratives that help their communities move forward. Today, our approach is being used by tens of thousands of individuals in communities across the U.S. and around the globe. But more is needed. We have an audacious strategy to make a case for a different kind of public life and politics and to spread these ideas, insights, and approaches so that people can make them their own. Of course, no single organization or individual can make these changes on their own; but, together, we can.