storytelling is not (only) entertainment
Belonging is Fundamental
Belonging is a fundamental human need. The pattern of organic connections between the diverse elements of natural systems are repeated everywhere we look. At the atomic and cellular level, between organs and systems in any organism including our bodies, in forest, desert or ocean ecosystems, and even in the way we design machines. This is the way things work. Each part has a critical role to play that cannot be dismissed or replaced. This makes all humans critical and valuable. Each part receives resources and support from other individual parts and the whole organism working in systemic harmony. We cannot thrive or even survive without each other. We just don’t work that way.
Isolation is damaging to humans just like it is to animals, organs, plants, and cells. Disconnection destroys. We need individual relationships and we need community. Mental, emotional, behavioral, physical, and social health are dependent on the shared human experience of belonging. This is readily demonstrated in marriage, family, friendship, neighborhoods, organizations, and communities. Connectedness leads to health in all realms. Disconnectedness leads to breakdown and illness.
All Connect ED programs, trainings, and guidance are founded on the theory that belonging is fundamental. If this core experience is met for the individual, their capacity to spread belonging is increased. Belonging spreads through a social network much like a positive contagion. As belonging increases within networks of people, those networks become restorative places.
Storytelling Brings Belonging to Life
There are a few basic elements of nearly every story. Whether it's a blockbuster movie, a biography or the story of your day, it will include a character, a crucible, and community. The character will be changed from the beginning to the end of the story. They will be understood by what they want (to be, do, or have). This desire will propel them through adversity and connect them with community. Surviving their crucible will make them more able in their future stories.
These story elements work together to reveal the components of belonging. Belonging is not only a feeling, it is the result of a real, measurable experience that each of us can know. There are four components of belonging. If you consider the other patterns of connectedness we see around us, each part has an individual identity - something they are, a role they play in the organism. They are an interdependent part of a larger system. Each also participates in a mutual cooperative collaboration with those in the system that they are in immediate contact with. Lastly, there is a shared generative purpose. The telling of your story will reveal these things about you. Listening to other’s stories will reveal them as well. What a character wants and how they react to and change through their crucible, and how they relate with community reveal how identity fits and matters in their system. A shared narrative creates a context of connections and interwoven characters that grows in its ability to clarify our belonging.
For this reason, Connect ED’s focus is on drawing out, nurturing and sustaining stories and storytelling. Research has shown that storytelling in small groups can increase the experience belonging by up to 80%.
Belonging is a fundamental human need. The pattern of organic connections between the diverse elements of natural systems are repeated everywhere we look. At the atomic and cellular level, between organs and systems in any organism including our bodies, in forest, desert or ocean ecosystems, and even in the way we design machines. This is the way things work. Each part has a critical role to play that cannot be dismissed or replaced. This makes all humans critical and valuable. Each part receives resources and support from other individual parts and the whole organism working in systemic harmony. We cannot thrive or even survive without each other. We just don’t work that way.
Isolation is damaging to humans just like it is to animals, organs, plants, and cells. Disconnection destroys. We need individual relationships and we need community. Mental, emotional, behavioral, physical, and social health are dependent on the shared human experience of belonging. This is readily demonstrated in marriage, family, friendship, neighborhoods, organizations, and communities. Connectedness leads to health in all realms. Disconnectedness leads to breakdown and illness.
All Connect ED programs, trainings, and guidance are founded on the theory that belonging is fundamental. If this core experience is met for the individual, their capacity to spread belonging is increased. Belonging spreads through a social network much like a positive contagion. As belonging increases within networks of people, those networks become restorative places.
Storytelling Brings Belonging to Life
There are a few basic elements of nearly every story. Whether it's a blockbuster movie, a biography or the story of your day, it will include a character, a crucible, and community. The character will be changed from the beginning to the end of the story. They will be understood by what they want (to be, do, or have). This desire will propel them through adversity and connect them with community. Surviving their crucible will make them more able in their future stories.
These story elements work together to reveal the components of belonging. Belonging is not only a feeling, it is the result of a real, measurable experience that each of us can know. There are four components of belonging. If you consider the other patterns of connectedness we see around us, each part has an individual identity - something they are, a role they play in the organism. They are an interdependent part of a larger system. Each also participates in a mutual cooperative collaboration with those in the system that they are in immediate contact with. Lastly, there is a shared generative purpose. The telling of your story will reveal these things about you. Listening to other’s stories will reveal them as well. What a character wants and how they react to and change through their crucible, and how they relate with community reveal how identity fits and matters in their system. A shared narrative creates a context of connections and interwoven characters that grows in its ability to clarify our belonging.
For this reason, Connect ED’s focus is on drawing out, nurturing and sustaining stories and storytelling. Research has shown that storytelling in small groups can increase the experience belonging by up to 80%.
Storytelling offerings
Small Group Storytelling Workshop
Description: This is a half day storytelling workshop in which the storytelling process is introduced along with an exploration of belonging as a fundamental human need. The basics of storytelling is taught and practiced in groups of three to six people. The presentation usually lasts between 90-120 minutes and storytelling happens in three or more sessions that last for a total of two to three hours.
Target: For existing small groups and organizations (affinity and support groups, churches, businesses, nonprofits, schools, coalitions, neighborhood associations, etc.) looking to increase and improve belonging, healthy culture and social norms, unity, team cohesion, communication, and productivity. Reduction in workplace conflict, absence, Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral problems…
Options: Two, two and a half hour sessions on two separate days or one four hour session. May be compressed into one three hour session.
Includes
Results
See scheduling page for costs
Description: This is a half day storytelling workshop in which the storytelling process is introduced along with an exploration of belonging as a fundamental human need. The basics of storytelling is taught and practiced in groups of three to six people. The presentation usually lasts between 90-120 minutes and storytelling happens in three or more sessions that last for a total of two to three hours.
Target: For existing small groups and organizations (affinity and support groups, churches, businesses, nonprofits, schools, coalitions, neighborhood associations, etc.) looking to increase and improve belonging, healthy culture and social norms, unity, team cohesion, communication, and productivity. Reduction in workplace conflict, absence, Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral problems…
Options: Two, two and a half hour sessions on two separate days or one four hour session. May be compressed into one three hour session.
Includes
- Multi-media, interactive, evidence-based introduction to belonging and storytelling
- Facilitation for storytelling process
- Short guides and storytelling cheat sheets
- Pre/post surveys and interviews for evidence of impact
- Phone support for leadership following implementation
Results
- Measurable 80% increase in belonging
- A fresh, restorative shared narrative that includes all voices, perspectives, and stories
- A clear understanding of each individual's interdependent identity and value within their group and community.
- Reduction in prejudice and judgment. It is easier to love those with whom you share a story. It is hard to hate when you have walked in someone’s shoes.
- Clarity regarding roles and potential collective efficacy.
- Appropriate arrangement of resource allocation among team/staff/organization members
- Improved culture and agreement on healthier norms
- Communication and conflict resistance
- Increased productivity in collaborative work
- Reduction in burnout
See scheduling page for costs
Facilitator training
Description: Facilitator trainings are in-depth explorations of the storytelling process in small groups. They cover the psychological and sociological underpinnings of belonging and community as fundamental human requirements. Facilitators learn how to create an environment for powerful storytelling, how to guide and participate in groups without controlling the outcome, how to elicit encouraging and creative recognition of belonging components (identity, value, resources needed), and how to respond when stories reveal lived experience with trauma.
Target: For organizations and communities who are integrating a storytelling process into their culture as a long-term systemic change agent. Facilitators are guides for the storytelling process that ensure that the creation of a shared narrative improves culture and norms within their population.
Options: One full day training or Friday night / Saturday weekend training
Includes
Results
Costs
Description: Facilitator trainings are in-depth explorations of the storytelling process in small groups. They cover the psychological and sociological underpinnings of belonging and community as fundamental human requirements. Facilitators learn how to create an environment for powerful storytelling, how to guide and participate in groups without controlling the outcome, how to elicit encouraging and creative recognition of belonging components (identity, value, resources needed), and how to respond when stories reveal lived experience with trauma.
Target: For organizations and communities who are integrating a storytelling process into their culture as a long-term systemic change agent. Facilitators are guides for the storytelling process that ensure that the creation of a shared narrative improves culture and norms within their population.
Options: One full day training or Friday night / Saturday weekend training
Includes
- Facilitator profile and guidance for recruiting
- In-depth exploration of belonging and storytelling
- Four storytelling sessions. One practice session for each facilitator
- Training and practice naming identity, value, and resources needed
- Naming orientation
- Access to facilitator support and coaching
- Responding to trauma
- Facilitator Guide/workbook
Results
- Your organization’s capacity to facilitate belonging through storytelling
- Competent facilitators trained lead storytelling groups effectively
- Facilitators experience increased confidence in identity, value, and resources needed
- Support network for facilitators
- Capacity for ongoing belonging increase within organization or community
- Qualified for facilitator trainer training
Costs
- One-day training: $1950.00 plus materials and travel
- Weekend training: $3500.00 plus materials and travel
- Additional $500.00 fee for overnight travel
- Materials include curriculum and workbooks for each participant
Individual Storyteller Training
Description: A seminar-style interactive training focused on teaching listening and encouragement skills needed to lead in story sharing. Participants will explore their own experience of belonging in a small group context to gain greater understanding of the storytelling process. They will learn how to tell and listen effectively to stories that facilitate the discovery of identity, collaboration, and generativity. They will learn to identify needed resources for a particular character and ways of capturing character traits with creative and personal articulation.
Target: Individuals who are interested in more restorative communication. Community advocates who want to improve the mental, emotional, behavioral, and physical health of their families, neighborhoods, organizations, and/or communities by reducing isolation one relationship at a time. Participants should be curious listeners, observers, and encouragers. Judgment, criticism, and prejudice are limiting characteristics that will hamper the story collector.
Options: Full day seminar
Includes:
Results
Costs: 250.00 per person, minimum ten participants
Description: A seminar-style interactive training focused on teaching listening and encouragement skills needed to lead in story sharing. Participants will explore their own experience of belonging in a small group context to gain greater understanding of the storytelling process. They will learn how to tell and listen effectively to stories that facilitate the discovery of identity, collaboration, and generativity. They will learn to identify needed resources for a particular character and ways of capturing character traits with creative and personal articulation.
Target: Individuals who are interested in more restorative communication. Community advocates who want to improve the mental, emotional, behavioral, and physical health of their families, neighborhoods, organizations, and/or communities by reducing isolation one relationship at a time. Participants should be curious listeners, observers, and encouragers. Judgment, criticism, and prejudice are limiting characteristics that will hamper the story collector.
Options: Full day seminar
Includes:
- Eight hours of training
- First half focused on conversational storytelling
- Second half focused on advanced story sharing
- Curriculum, and workbooks
- Step-by-step guide to story collecting
- Understanding of trauma impact
- Greater awareness of their stress response and personality assets
Results
- Increased experience of belonging
- Confidence in identity and value to their community
- Awareness of interdependent connections and reliance on resources provided by others
- Support network
- Access to digital resources
- Bi-weekly newsletter
Costs: 250.00 per person, minimum ten participants
| storytelling_guide_v5.pdf |