The Art of Storytelling: Engaging the public in your cause

When communicating about a key environmental or social issue, it is critical that we find ways to engage and motivate people to action.  Many of us are experts at communicating the data and statistics about the issues we care so deeply about. We answer our audiences’ intellectual questions exceptionally well, but often forget that real engagement also requires developing an emotional connection. Storytelling is a time-tested way to reach the hearts and souls of the people whose support you want and need. Story-telling, whether it is in a public speaking, a written report, a press release or a media interview, is a powerful tool for getting your message above the clutter.

With hands-on exercises to get you developing your own stories and an opportunity to share those stories and get feedback from other participants, this course is an excellent kick-start for all individuals who find themselves in situations where they have the opportunity to meet and engage new supporters, and all individuals who want to deepen relationships with existing supporters.

Who is this course for?

• Community organizers wanting to engage, inspire and motivate
• Researchers who talk to the media or make presentations
• Policy analysts seeking to communicate the impact of policy decisions
• Campaigners creating relationships with key communities
• Communications practitioners looking to build their skills
• Sustainability practitioners communicating complex ideas to staff and teams

Donna Barker
is a freelance writer and communication consultant with a 16-year history of working with and for the not-for-profit sector. She has been a regular trainer for the Hollyhock Leadership Institute since 2001, and formally worked for IMPACS, the Institute for Media, Policy and Civil Society.

Donna has developed and facilitated close to two-hundred workshops on a wide variety of communications-related subjects since 1998. Donna’s own background as a storyteller started in university where she pursued a degree in Communication Studies with a specialization in documentary filmmaking. Although no longer dabbling in documentaries, today Donna shocks her friends and family through the storytelling she does in her monthly health column in sharedVISION magazine.

Rhian Walker
is the program director at Hollyhock Leadership Institute, where she regularly develops and teaches programs on leadership, communications, and personal ecology. She also provides communications counsel to environmental and social change projects. Formally, she was a communications consultant for three years, training hundreds of spokespeople, and working with non-profits, government, business and industry.

A writer herself, she dabbles in non-fiction, journalism, poetry and short fiction, and has been published in Canadian creative writing magazines.