Why Stories Matter: Igniting Engagement

By: Pattie LaCroix http://www.catapultmedia.ca

The large sun-light room is crackling with the palpable sensation of hope. I can feel every time one of the 130 volunteers from across Canada stands to tell their story.

I had been invited to join them for their national conference to build their capacity to engage Canadians in the World Partnership Walk in nine cities across the country. I was asked to deliver my “Why Stories Matter” workshop to strengthen their capacity to tell their stories of how the World Partnership Walk brings to life the Canadian value of compassion and action anchored in a determined hope for a better world.

World Partnership Walk

Since its inception the World Partnership Walk has been the most successful event of its kind raising over $40 million to support communities in Africa and south Asia. Thousands of Canadians Walk each year to support the work of the international development agency the Aga Khan Foundation of Canada (AKFC). Participants know AKFC’s projects in the area of health, micro-finance, education and the environment are making a direct and overwhelming positive impact in the lives of so many.

The room is full of volunteer leaders who understand the essential role that stories play in public engagement. Stories help us decipher what information or data means and make us feel like we fit in somewhere between evidence, experience and our hope for our lives and communities moving forward.

Stories to Ignite Participation

The powerful and intentional question on that day was “how can our stories ignite Canadians to join with us to walk to raise support to bring hope and support to people in the developing world?” It has not been easy for organizations working in the developing world to tell their story in a meaningful way, in a way that brings context to complex issues and creates opportunities for people to connect their actions towards global justice and equity for all global citizens. So often they have relied on data and on evidence-based outcomes to set the stage for public engagement. But data alone does not set the context, ignite connections, create meaning and plant the seeds of hope necessary for change to take root.

Author Robert Dickman describes stories as “a fact, wrapped in an emotion that compels us to take an action that transforms our world.”

“Stories are the way we naturally think; the way we sort the information in our brain. They are also a way to remember – they cement ideas in our brain,” observes author Kate Lutz. “Facts aren’t influential,” adds author Annette Simmons “until they mean something to someone.”

The power of story goes beyond just shaping meaning for all of human history we know that stories of hope, of optimism tap into a universal value of the possibility.

Growing Purpose

As the room full of volunteer leaders moves through the workshop I can feel their confidence building and their clarity of purpose growing. As the day goes on more and more are on their feet wanting to flex their storytelling muscles and share their story of hope. Some stories result in applause, cheers, laughter while others in tears and powerful silence.

We close our time together reading from an interview from the world respected author, professor and American civil rights activist, Howard Zinn, who at age 87 passed away in January of this year. In an interview with Nation magazine he reflects on the “optimism of uncertainty.”

“What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives."

If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places -- and there are so many -- where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act…if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future.

The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory…Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world. We need hope.”

When we come together to inform and affect change in our lives, our communities and our world through intentional dialogue and deliberation the story of hope will rise to the surface. Here we will glimpse the reflection of ourselves at our best within a future we are compelled to believe that we can create together. That is why stories matter.