Planning a Story Circles Event.doc The file includes images to supplement the text.
Planning a Story Circles Event
What are story circles?
Throughout human history, we have gathered around the fire, the kitchen table, on our front porch, in town--wherever we come together--and share our experiences, our memories, and our dreams. In sitting together, sharing stories, we transmit our culture, we reach out to one another, we learn and we teach, we weave together our families, our friends, our town. To be human means to tell stories.
Why incorporate story circles in a Heart & Soul project?
Sharing stories in a small group helps us to get to know one another better. As we listen to each other’s stories, we come to understand the rich diversity of our voices, and we strengthen our ties with the people and places of our community. We learn from one another what we value about the town—what we wish to keep and what we want to change. We begin to build a future together.
What does a story circle look like? How do we plan for one?
Story circles come in all shapes and sizes. We have found the following guidelines lead to rewarding events aimed at bringing people together:
Group Size
Groups of 6-8 people work well. It is a small enough group that everyone gets a chance to share, but not so big as to lose that sense of intimacy. Larger groups take a lot of time!
In a city-wide event, people put themselves (or are put) into groups of 6-8, seeking out people they do not know well. (See the sheet, Tips for Story Circle Facilitators)
Participants
To get a good sense of what your group/neighborhood/community values, whose story needs to be heard? Will you invite everyone? Will you go out and invite individuals personally?
Location
Someone’s house? A favorite informal gathering spot? A formal, neutral space in town? Outside if you plan a walking story circle. It is important to select a location where invitees will feel comfortable and welcome. (In Victor, Idaho we held a story circles event in a historic playhouse rich in community history and resonance for just about everyone in town.)
Food
Just as stories bring us together, so does food. Have a potluck (sharing what we have prepared in our kitchens is a kind of storytelling), or offer foods rich in connection to the place. Coffee and cookies work wonders, too!
Topics
*Note: Make sure you discuss what you mean by story.
If people do not know one another well, and the purpose of the event is to get to know one’s neighbors, one’s community, then it might be useful to ask people to bring a story about a place or a person or an experience that illustrates what they find special about the community. An event might also be theme-focused:
Past-Present-Future Stories
Stories about Place: the Physical Environment
Stories about the Character of the Community
Stories about Specific Issues: e.g. garden stories, or childhood stories, or farm stories
Invitation sent to Damariscotta, Maine residents for their first story-circles event, a celebration of community that also included values harvesting
To help people feel comfortable in a creative space, try out one or more of the following:
Ideas for Story Stirrers: A Selection of Fun Exercises
1. Pin up a large map of the town and give each person two sticky dots. Have them stick their dots on two places they consider “story hotspots”—places that hold important stories about the community, stories without which the full community story could not be told. Share these stories as described below. If you have a group quite at ease with storytelling and a skilled facilitator, you could ask people to place Color A dot on a place they want to stay the same, and a Color B dot on a place they would like to change. (It takes skill as a facilitator to move a group comfortable out of celebration and into deliberation.)
2. After people tell their stories, have them imagine the same story ten years into the future. Have them tell it. Discuss what the differences tell you about planning for the future.
3. In pairs, have people draw a map of the town and dot it with story hotspots. Have them share these choices and explore the connection between the physical and non-physical aspects of the stories—where does landscape and place end, and community begin?
4. Give out nametags and have people write their names AND five places they associate with the Heart & Soul of the community. Share these as the opening exercise.
5. Have people bring a photo or an object that somehow illustrates a connection they have to the town, and to be ready to share the story that goes with that object.
6. First Impressions: Tell the story of your first memory of your town. Tell a more recent story that connects to or reverses that first impression.
7. Place a set of Pictures-of-the Town (100 small photo cards—possible to order from Moo.com and Zazzle.com—you send them the images, they send you the cards) in the center of a table and have everyone choose five. Have them create a five-image story. Everyone looks at the images stories and tells new stories prompted by the photos.
8. Imagine that this story circle is preparing to write a book entitled The Guidebook to Your Town’s Heart & Soul. Brainstorm a list of stories to include in the book. Sort them into chapters. What would they be? Share stories and talk about how the chapter headings reveal important values held about living in this community.
9. Have people draw the Heart & Soul of the community. Arrange these drawings into a paper quilt. Have people share the stories of those drawings, or choose a drawing they did not create and tell a story prompted by that drawing, a story that gets at something they value about this place.
10. Hand people blank postcards. Write a story-letter to the town about something you value about living here. Imagine the postcard reaching town in ten years—what do you wish to tell people a decade from now? Share the stories. Send these postcards to the storytelling committee.
11. Draw a set of postcards: The Only Thing You Need to Know about Town
12. A Wishbook for Our Community: at the end of the story circle event, pass around the wishbook and have each person add a drawing, their story, or their wish for the future of the town.
Planning
Possible Formats
Simple
More Complex: A Walking Story Circle
Variations
Story Circle Facilitator Training
Just about anyone can train to facilitate a story circle. To grow a story-circle movement in your town and ensure people from every corner of the community feel welcome at story circle events, encourage everyone, especially the hubs of groups (see Chapter 000 on Community Mapping), to attend a facilitator workshop—the trainings alone strengthen bonds and build bridges across a community if you train a group of people who do not know one another well.
To train a group of volunteers to lead basic story circles as outlined above, including harvesting values, plan on two-three hours depending on how familiar the group is with the Heart & Soul project and processes.
HOUR ONE: Introduction to Story Circles through a Story Circle
1. Getting Acquainted through a Story Circle Exercise
Here are two ideas for introducing facilitator trainees to one another and to story circles.
A. Object Stories
Materials:
Special objects (see below)
3' square sticky notes, enough for everyone to have at least six
One large map of the town
A set of small removable sticky dots
Time Needed:
30 -60 minutes, depending on size of group
Objective:
To introduce the group to one another through story, image and metaphor as well as to some of the concepts about stories and storytelling covered during the workshop
In advance:
Tell everyone to bring in an object that suggests their relationship to the community. Let them know that they will be telling a story about that connection.
PART ONE: Exploring the objects (10 minutes)
1. If the group numbers more than ten participants, split up into groups of 4-5. If possible, sit around small tables.
2. Place the objects in the center of the table. Look at them, but don't discuss them.
3. Each person takes six sticky notes. Write down a word or phrase on each note in response to the array of objects. (6 notes, 6 words or phrases) What do they tell you about the town/community? What do they reveal that's special to this town, that makes it unique?
4. As a small group, stick the notes to a nearby wall or sheet of paper given to you, and look for patterns, for distinctions. Arrange them according to patterns you discover, and discuss the similarities and/or differences between responses.
PART TWO: Telling the stories (30 minutes)
5. The workshop leader will time a minute. Participants listen to the contours of a minute. She will time a second minute. Participants think about how in this timeframe they will tell the story relating this object to their sense of the community. What is offered by this time constraint? How does it feel to know you are about to share your story with a group, aloud?
6. The workshop leader will be the timer. One by one, with no discussion between tellers, participants will tell their stories to their small groups.
7. Once all the stories have been shared, discuss
a. striking moments. What do you remember most vividly? Why? What do you notice about these stories?
b. what you notice about yourself as a storyteller, as a listener. What is the effect of being in a story circle?
c. how you might "catch" one of these stories--choose one of the stories that seems to have potential to bring "news" to the community about itself or one that gets right to the heart of an important point related to the Heart & Soul Planning Initiative. What would you add or revise to the storyline in order to extract more meaning? What kinds of media would you choose for the telling? How might it be shared?
8. As a full group, discuss results from #7 and what you have gleaned from this exercise--from the act of telling stories to a group to listening to them, to discussing them.
9. As a group, locate the stories literally, on a map of the town with small sticky dots and figuratively--how they relate to one another, talk to one another, and talk to and for the community.
B. Introduction to Story Circles through a Role-Playing Exercise
If the group you are training is quite large, and there is but one trainer, and the attendees have not participated in a story circle, you might start off with a role-play demonstration of story circles.
1. Give everyone eight removable sticky dots, 2 each of four colors, and a pad of sticky notes. Place a wall-sized map of the town (as big a map as you can find) on the wall.
2. Ask the group to do the following:
3. Explain the Story Rounds:
4. In the meantime, the rest of the group will be watching, thinking about facilitating a group using this process. They take notes and after the Story Rounds, discuss ways to bring out stories, manage group dynamics without squelching personalities, and ensure a good outcome from the values harvesting.
HOUR TWO: Planning & Facilitating Story Circles
Go Over Tips on Preparing for the Conversation:
1. Themes:
Understand the purpose of the evening: Are you wishing to inform people? Consult them? Involve them? Bring them together? Brainstorm questions carefully, looking for focused but open-ended questions that should lead to rich stories. Think about the poles of the community—how might you frame the evening so that everyone feels welcome and included, that this night is for anyone who wants to attend.
2. Ground Rules:
Decide on whether you will establish ground rules ahead of time or with the group. Some possible guidelines: do not interrupt, keep to the time, listen fully, be respectful—share stories that harm no one.
3. Recording:
Will you be recording the session? If so, have permission sheets ready. Make sure you know how to use recording devices if you will use them. Test the recorder just before the session. Think about the pros and cons of recording story circles.
4. Practice:
It is easy to feel nervous and want to fill the silences or to get everyone to focus. It’s important to let the conversation find its own way, with you gently enabling it to move according to its way, not inserting yourself unless things are really going awry. Test the questions by coming up with your own answers. Have examples ready to offer. Practice your own detailed but brief introductory story in case you need to give them an example.
5. Props:
Write the question(s) and ground rules on a flip chart or card on the table (if you are using tables).
Think about your role as facilitator: your job is to help your group have a rewarding experience, which means you will serve as guide not as participant. Do you need props to assist you?
Go Over the Facilitator’s Role During the Conversation
PRACTICE: Role Play
1. In groups of six, pull cards that denote your part in the story-circle role play. Only the facilitator reveals his /her role. The others will act your parts but not tell the others what role you have. Make sure that in acting, you are responding to the moment. Do not merely be difficult of you are the skeptic, for example.
Note: This exercise is not meant to imply that story circles will be challenging. Most are not in the least, but it’s important to be ready for difficulties should they arise.
2. Playing your assigned roles, move through shortened versions of the three rounds, 10 minutes/round.
3. Debrief—what happened? What did you observe from your role’s viewpoint? What tips can you add to the list above on facilitating community conversations?
4. As a full group, share the small-group experiences. Workshop trainer should compile and distribute the tips, perhaps creating a Wordle to highlight recommended practices.