Story-based Strategy: How Grassroots Organizers Can Win the Battle of the Story

SmartMeme’s training will focus on updating the timeless skills of storytelling and social change strategy for our current context of media-saturation, hyper-branding and 24 hour news cycles. This multi-media, interactive training will provide participants with hands on tools for framing their issues and useful frameworks to integrate messaging and storytelling into their organizing and campaigning. We will explore what it means to apply a “narrative analysis of power” to social change work and approach strategy through the lens of storytelling. We will share some of the story-based strategy approach for linking traditional organizing and movement building efforts with values based messaging, narrative concepts and creative action. This will include discussion of the relationship between meme theory—the study of how ideas spread and replicate—and movement building. Participants will get a chance to share some of their stories and unpack the “control mythologies” at play around the issue they work on. The training will cross issues and organizing experiences, use interactivity, small groups and skilled facilitation to help participants integrate messaging and storytelling into grassroots campaign work.