10.3 Collaborative approaches to diverse storytelling

Collaborative storytelling brings diverse voices together to create shared narratives. By establishing clear roles, creating safe spaces, and fostering ongoing dialogue, these approaches amplify underrepresented perspectives and challenge dominant narratives.

Building trust is crucial for vulnerable storytelling. Active listening, shared accountability, and power-sharing create an environment where collaborators feel valued and empowered. This fosters richer, more nuanced narratives that represent diverse experiences and build empathy across differences.

Collaborative Storytelling Models

Bringing Together Diverse Perspectives

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• Collaborative storytelling involves bringing together people from different backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives to create shared narratives
  • Requires active listening, open communication, and a willingness to understand different viewpoints
  • Examples of diverse perspectives include different ages, genders, ethnicities, abilities, and lived experiences
  • Facilitates the exchange of ideas and experiences that may not typically intersect

Establishing Clear Expectations and Roles

• Successful models for collaborative storytelling across diverse communities often involve establishing clear goals, roles, and expectations for all participants upfront
  • Ensures everyone feels heard, valued, and has equal ownership in the process and final product
  • May involve creating a group agreement or memorandum of understanding
  • Clarifies decision-making processes, communication protocols, and conflict resolution strategies
• Roles may include facilitators, story gatherers, editors, and community liaisons, among others
  • Important to ensure roles are equitably assigned and allow for skill-sharing and capacity-building

Creating Safe and Inclusive Environments

• Effective collaborative storytelling models create safe, inclusive spaces that encourage vulnerability, empathy and the open sharing of experiences and perspectives
  • May involve agreeing to communication norms, confidentiality, and consent around sharing personal stories
  • Ensures all participants feel respected, supported, and able to bring their full selves to the process
  • Prioritizes the safety and well-being of participants who may be sharing sensitive or traumatic experiences
• Examples of creating inclusive spaces include providing language interpretation, accessible meeting spaces, and trauma-informed facilitation

Incorporating Ongoing Dialogue and Reflection

• Collaborative storytelling models should incorporate opportunities for ongoing dialogue, reflection, and the ability to adapt the process as needed
  • Allows for participants to process and make meaning of their experiences throughout the storytelling journey
  • Provides space for collaborators to offer feedback, suggest changes, and ensure their voices are being accurately represented
  • Builds in flexibility to adapt the process and content to serve the unique needs of the communities and individuals involved
• Examples of reflection activities include group discussions, journaling, story circles, and participant interviews

Examples of Collaborative Storytelling Models

• Story circles: Small groups engage in structured storytelling and deep listening around a theme
• Participatory media projects: Community members are trained in media production to create their own content
• Community oral history initiatives: Collecting and archiving stories from community elders and residents
• Devised theater processes: Ensemble-created performances that center marginalized voices and experiences
• Participatory photography projects (PhotoVoice): Community members use photography to represent their own realities

Building Trust in Storytelling

Fostering an Environment of Trust

• Building trust and rapport is essential for creating an environment where diverse collaborators feel safe to share openly, take creative risks, and engage in vulnerable storytelling
  • Requires intentional facilitation and a commitment to creating a supportive, non-judgmental space
  • Involves modeling vulnerability, empathy, and respect as a facilitator and among participants
  • May require acknowledging and addressing power dynamics and systemic inequities that impact trust-building
• Examples of trust-building activities include community agreements, check-ins, and sharing circles

Practicing Active Listening and Engagement

• Active listening involves being fully present, avoiding judgment, asking clarifying questions, and reflecting back what is heard to ensure understanding
  • Demonstrates value and respect for collaborators and their stories
  • Requires setting aside preconceptions and being open to new perspectives
  • Involves paying attention to non-verbal cues and emotional undertones in addition to spoken words
• Engaging in team-building exercises and icebreakers that allow participants to share parts of their identities, backgrounds, and personal stories can help establish a foundation of connection and relatability
  • Low-stakes activities that encourage self-disclosure and finding commonalities
  • Examples include name stories, identity maps, and "I am from" poems

Establishing Shared Accountability and Investment

• Developing a group agreement with input from all collaborators around communication norms, decision-making processes, and conflict resolution helps create a shared sense of accountability and investment
  • Co-created agreements promote buy-in and a sense of shared ownership
  • Provides a framework for holding each other accountable and addressing challenges that arise
  • Should be regularly revisited and adapted as needed throughout the process
• Regularly checking in with collaborators, being responsive to concerns that arise, following through on commitments, and transparently communicating help maintain trust throughout the process
  • Demonstrates reliability, responsiveness, and a commitment to collaborators' well-being
  • Proactively addresses potential misunderstandings and conflicts
  • Supports collaborators in feeling seen, heard, and valued throughout the process

Sharing Power and Leadership

• Sharing power and leadership responsibilities, ensuring all voices are represented, and being open to adapting based on collaborator input demonstrates a commitment to true partnership and helps deepen rapport
  • Disrupts traditional hierarchical power structures and centers the expertise of lived experience
  • Requires humility, flexibility, and a willingness to share control and decision-making
  • Provides opportunities for collaborators to take on leadership roles and develop new skills
• Examples of power-sharing include rotating facilitation roles, consensus-based decision making, and collaborative agenda-setting

Benefits and Challenges of Collaborative Narratives

Representing Diverse Perspectives

• Collaborative storytelling across diverse communities allows for a multiplicity of perspectives and experiences to be represented, leading to richer, more nuanced narratives
  • Challenges dominant single stories and stereotypical representations
  • Surfaces intersectional experiences and highlights within-group diversity
  • Provides a platform for voices and stories that have been historically marginalized or silenced
• The process of co-creation can build deeper understanding, empathy and solidarity between collaborators of different backgrounds
  • Facilitates perspective-taking and the humanization of experiences different from one's own
  • Highlights shared struggles and aspirations across lines of difference
  • Leads to new insights and learning through the exchange of stories and experiences

Navigating Power Dynamics and Difference

• Bringing together collaborators of diverse backgrounds requires navigating different communication styles, cultural norms and power dynamics which can lead to misunderstanding and conflict if not addressed proactively
  • Requires self-awareness, cultural humility, and a willingness to engage in difficult conversations
  • May involve acknowledging and addressing systemic inequities and privilege within the group
  • Challenges collaborators to move beyond their comfort zones and default ways of engaging
• Ensuring all collaborators are able to participate equitably and authentically share their stories may require addressing barriers to access, language justice and representation throughout the process
  • Involves considering factors such as transportation, childcare, scheduling, and language needs
  • May require budgeting for participant stipends, interpreters, and other accessibility accommodations
  • Requires ongoing assessment and adaptation to ensure equitable participation

Managing Time and Resources

• Collaborative storytelling requires significant time, emotional labor and a commitment to process, which can be challenging with limited resources and fast-paced production timelines
  • Requires realistic goal-setting and expectation management around what can be accomplished
  • May involve seeking additional funding, partnerships, or extending project timelines
  • Challenges collaborators to prioritize relationships and process over product and efficiency
• Representing diverse stories and experiences runs the risk of tokenization, stereotyping or re-traumatization if not approached with care, cultural competency and a trauma-informed lens
  • Requires self-reflection and accountability around one's own biases and blind spots
  • Involves prioritizing the safety, agency and self-determination of collaborators
  • May require additional support systems, such as counseling or healing spaces, to mitigate potential harm

Amplifying Marginalized Voices

Centering Underrepresented Communities

• Identify a specific community or group whose stories and perspectives have been historically underrepresented or misrepresented in mainstream narratives to center in the project
  • Examples include LGBTQ+ youth, immigrants and refugees, people with disabilities, and Indigenous communities
  • Requires research and outreach to understand community needs, assets, and storytelling traditions
  • Involves building authentic relationships and partnerships with community members and organizations
• Build relationships with community leaders, organizations and individuals to better understand the community's needs, identify key stories and perspectives to amplify, and recruit collaborative storytellers
  • Attend community events, volunteer, and show up in solidarity to build trust and demonstrate commitment
  • Compensate community partners and storytellers for their time, expertise, and emotional labor
  • Be transparent about intentions, goals, and limitations of the project and follow through on commitments

Choosing Accessible Storytelling Mediums

• Choose an accessible storytelling medium that plays to the strengths and interests of the collaborative storytellers
  • Examples include oral history, participatory video, podcasting, performance, poetry, and digital storytelling
  • Consider the technical skills and resources required for different mediums and provide training and support as needed
  • Ensure the final product is accessible to the community it represents in terms of language, technology, and dissemination
• Develop a clear, shared vision for the storytelling project's goals, intended impact and audience to guide the collaborative process and content creation
  • Involve collaborators in defining project goals and success metrics
  • Identify target audiences and desired outcomes, such as policy change, community healing, or cultural preservation
  • Ensure alignment between individual storyteller goals and collective project vision

Collaborative Story Development

• Establish a timeline, production workflow and role responsibilities that allow for equitable participation, shared decision-making and opportunities for collaborator feedback throughout
  • Break down tasks and roles that play to collaborators' strengths and interests
  • Build in ample time for relationship-building, skill-sharing, and iteration
  • Involve collaborators in key decision points, such as story selection, editing, and distribution
• Engage in a collaborative story development process, such as a story circle, to provide a space for storytellers to share their experiences, identify themes, and workshop narratives
  • Facilitate a safe, generative space for collaborators to take creative risks and offer constructive feedback
  • Identify common threads and narratives that emerge across stories while honoring individual experiences
  • Provide story structure and editing support while ensuring collaborator agency over their own story

Participant Training and Mentorship

• Provide technical training and mentorship as needed to ensure all collaborators are able to actively participate in content creation and have the skills to shape their own representations
  • Assess collaborator skills and comfort levels with different technical aspects of storytelling medium
  • Provide hands-on training, shadowing opportunities, and peer mentorship to build skills and confidence
  • Ensure access to necessary equipment, software, and production spaces
• Be intentional about how the project will be shared and distributed, ensuring the content is accessible to the communities represented and has a clear social impact strategy
  • Involve collaborators in developing a distribution and impact plan that reaches intended audiences
  • Partner with community organizations, advocates, and media outlets to increase visibility and reach
  • Ensure storytellers have agency over how their stories are shared and provide ongoing support around the impacts of going public with personal stories