This is an opportunity to develop your reflective writing skills and craft stories that bring to life the real human drama of social change.
For people in civil society organisations: activists, leaders, organisers, practitioners, community leaders, researchers… anyone with a story to tell and a willingness to learn. Whether you want to document a powerful moment of transformation, a crisis that taught you something profound, or the messy, beautiful work of practice itself, this course offers the tools, support and structure to help you tell your story with insight and authenticity. What makes this course different? You will be surfacing and learning from your real-life experience, with honesty and depth. We’ll help you go beyond the “outside story” of what happened, to explore the “inside story” e.g. the assumptions, emotions, dilemmas and discoveries that shaped your actions and reflections. In the course, you’ll also be introduced to a number of narrative arcs. These are simple but powerful story structures that help you shape your experience into a compelling journey. You'll choose a story arc that fits your theme, then use guided prompts to build your story step by step, from the spark that set things in motion to the deeper change that followed. You’ll learn to:
The Process The course runs over four sessions of 3.5 hours each:
What do you need? A notebook, an open mind, and a story you care about. You’ll be supported every step of the way. No prior story writing experience is required. A Writer's Guide We will provide you with a comprehensive and helpful Writer's Guide, full of practical advice to finetune your writing pieces. Your Facilitator Doug Reeler has facilitated Barefoot Guide Writeshops and provided coaching and editing support for writers for the past 15 years. He also practices as an organisation and development facilitator with Tamarind Tree Associates. Our Experience The method developed by the Barefoot Guide Connection during the past ten years has culminated in a wide array of 14 Barefoot Guides, and numerous books, articles, reports, and blogs written by communities of practice in social change fields like health, environment, organisational change, agroecology and inclusion. Most of the hundreds of people we have supported to write stories had never imagined they could write something worth publishing. But they have and so can you. Our Approach We facilitate enjoyable processes to help participants to overcome their writer’s block and to use the writing process itself to reflect, learn and deepen their understanding of their real work. This also helps those involved in monitoring and evaluation to develop a deeper learning dimension in their practice. An article to understand the thinking behind this course
Outside Story Inside Story: The Power of Stories in Practices of Social Change by Doug Reeler Exploring the role of stories and storytelling in social change and how writing and working with stories of change can contribute to transforming social change practice Download |
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