Storytelling For Systems Change

Introduction

The document Storytelling for Systems Change: Insights from the Field explores the role of storytelling in driving and supporting community-led systems change. It details a collaboration between Dusseldorp Forum, Hands Up Mallee, and the Centre for Public Impact to understand how stories can be more effectively used to communicate the impact of such work, particularly to decision-makers in government.

Here’s a bullet-point overview of the document Storytelling for Systems Change:

• Purpose: Explores how storytelling can support community-led systems change and effectively communicate its impact, especially to decision-makers in government.

• Key Insights:

  • Storytelling's Role in Systems Change:
    • Stories support systems change by shifting mindsets, building empathy, and offering new perspectives.
    • Stories can both change the system and showcase the change occurring in communities.
  • Characteristics of Good Storytelling:
    • Stories must be authentic, honoring the voice of the community and allowing for agency in telling.
    • Effective stories are clear, relatable, and should challenge dominant narratives.
    • Must be guided by agreed protocols to ensure dignity, accuracy, and respect for the story-holder.
  • Barriers to Storytelling:
    • Technical: Lack of skills, resources, and time to craft stories.
    • Structural: Power imbalances, lack of trust, and the complexity of systems change make it hard to capture stories in traditional formats.
    • Institutional: Difficulty of fitting complex systems change work into simple cause-effect storytelling.
  • Opportunities for Improvement:
    • Create infrastructure such as community story registers, immersive storytelling spaces, and databases to capture and share stories.
    • Increase support for community storytellers through workshops, mentorships, and funding for local storytellers.
  • Vision for the Future:
    • Encourage a broader understanding of storytelling traditions, especially across cultures and demographics.
    • Foster innovation in storytelling, challenging traditional formats and creating spaces for collective stories of change.
  • Next Steps:
    • Build on insights with practical actions, such as developing storytelling networks, integrating qualitative and quantitative data, and addressing the demand side of storytelling (ensuring stories are heard by the right audiences).

• Impact:

  • Emphasizes that storytelling is a key tool for reshaping systems and changing the narrative, with a focus on enabling and celebrating community-driven systems change.

This overview captures the essence of the report, highlighting the role of storytelling in systemic change, challenges, and ways forward.

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