1.  Understand & detail your project goals.

2.  Understand your community context (see mapping).

3.  Think about what storytelling can do for your community, your project:

An example from Biddeford, Maine during their Storytelling Planning Workshop:

4. Match community context to your project goals & storytelling uses:

5.  Look at the Process:

Plan Storytelling Waves, remembering to think about scale and timeframe as well as your community's capacity for such a project:

•  What kind of soft launch will draw people to the project?  Will you invite people you hope to enlist as faciltators/story catchers later on? Will the soft launch focus on the first two circles of the map but be inclusive of all---having the high school students showcase their digital stories?

•  Can you plan some small forays out into the communities less likely to participate?  Some kind of theme-based storytelling? Neighborhood get-togethers to explain the project and tell stories in small groups?  Informal-group-based storytelling? Some photo exhibits places around town?  Contests--team story quests about the town?  Story-trivia night with prizes?  Showings of student stories on local radio/television? 

•  Do you have other ideas for non-verbal storytelling that might appeal to this community?  Murals? Paintings?  Photo exhibits--now-and-then-and-in-the-future?

An excellent resource on planning a storytelling project is the online (free) book, Working with Stories.