personal narrative workshop

Australian Youth Climate Coalition - Community Outreach Workshop

Personal Narrative Workshop

Objectives:

1. Participants understand the theory behind personal narrative and are able to

recognise the importance of values and emotion in stories

2. Participants understand the structure of personal narrative

3. Participants have a chance to practice their personal narrative and receive feedback

Workshop Design: 90 minutes

5 mins Introduction

10 mins Personal Narrative Theory

20 mins Personal Narrative Structure

40 mins Small Group Work

15 mins Debrief and Wrap Up

Materials:

Markers, Whiteboard/butchers paper, Projector, Barrack Obama 2004 Speech

The AYCC aims to build a generation-wide movement

of young people to solve the climate crisis.

Our power lies in mobilising, empowering and skilling up our volunteers. Creating a positive, fun and

supportive environment is crucial to maintaining volunteers and building the movement.


Introduction: 5 minutes

Aim: To introduce participants to personal narrative and show how it can be used to move people to action.

Running the Session:

SAY: Today I‟m going to run through some of the basics of personal narrative, the reasons we use it and the structure to follow. Then, we are going to have some time to create our own story of self, share these with a partner and receive feedback.

ASK: Has anyone seen an AYCC volunteer give their personal narrative before? SAY: So your first thought when you think about „personal narrative‟ may be “I don‟t have a story to tell” but I can assure you that you do! We all have a story that can move others to action and as you learn this skill, you will be learning to tell a compelling story about yourself, the community you organise with and your strategy that encourages others to join you in creating change. In addition you will gain practice in listening and coaching others to tell a good story.

Introduce the goals of the workshop

Introduce the agenda and ask for questions

Personal Narrative Theory: 10 mins

Aim: Participants understand the importance of stories in motivating others to action.

Running the Exercise:

ASK: Why do you think we use public narrative?

Explain the following:

Stories are a very important tool that we can use to motivate people to act because values are usually experienced through emotion.

Our leaders use both the ‗head‘ and the ‗heart‘ in order to mobilise others to act effectively on behalf of shared values. In other words, they engage people into interpreting why they should change their world (their motivation) and how they can act to change it (their strategy).

We acquire knowledge and understanding by using two different parts of our brain – one deals with patterns, logic and science (the head) and other deals with emotional connections, which tell us how to act (the heart). There have been tests done on people who have experienced a car accident and have damaged the parts of the brain that deal with emotions. What they have found is that these people can reason, and find options – in theory their brain still works, however, they are not able to make decisions. They cannot decide what to do with their options. This shows how important the emotional connection is in our call to action. Personal narrative is the ―why‖ – the art of translating values into action through stories which leads to a shared understanding. Emotions inform us about what we value


in ourselves, in others, and in the world. Since we experience values emotionally, it is these values that move us to act, not the idea that we ought to act. Stories allow us to express our values as lived experience – not only that as children we learnt our values from stories. Some emotions inhibit action but other emotions facilitate action. Draw up this diagram and then explain:

Inhibitors to Action

Calls to Action

Fear Hope

Apathy Anger

Inertia Urgency

Self-Doubt YCMAD

Isolation Solidarity

Action is inhibited by inertia, fear, self-doubt, isolation and apathy. Action is facilitated by urgency, hope, YCMAD, solidarity, anger. Stories mobilise emotions of action to overcome emotions that inhibit us from action. Has anyone ever felt isolated, that they were alone in their views or maybe that they couldn‟t make a difference in stopping climate change? We can use our stories to trigger different emotional responses in our audience and drive them to act in many ways.

Personal Narrative Structure: 20 minutes

Aim: Participants understand the structure of a personal narrative (Challenge, Choice, Outcome) and review Obama‟s DNC Speech as a case study.

Running the Exercise:

Explain (5 mins) In every story there is a plot, character and a moral that underpins the story. Within this there is a structure that we call challenge—choice—outcome. Can I get everyone to say that with me now? So in your story, you are obviously the main character and what you need to do is choose one or two key moments that have shaped your story. You don‟t need to tell your whole life story. We tell our stories with intention, they have a point. As an example, I‟ll tell you a story…I got up, had a shower, got on a train and came here. What do you think is missing from this? Structure:

Challenge: Why did you feel it was a challenge? What was so challenging about it? Why was it your challenge?

Choice: Why did you make the choice you did? Where did you get the courage – or not? Where did you get the hope – or not? How did it feel?

Outcome: How did the outcome feel? Why did it feel that way? What did it teach you? What do you want to teach us? How do you want us to feel?


PLAY: Obama‘s 2004 DNC Speech (8 mins)

Worksheet Questions (See hand out or if not available write up before video)

Self: What are his experiences and values that call him to the national stage?

Us: Who is the “us” that he identifies? What images and share experiences does he call on? What are the common values he appeals to?

Now: What challenge to those values does he identify? What is his strategy to overcome this challenge? What is the first step that each person can take to be part of the solution?

Discussion Questions: (5 mins)

1. Do you think he did a good job of telling his story? What worked? What could have been clearer?

2. What are some of the specific details in his story that you remember? 3. What values did he talk about in his story?

Small Group Work: 40 minutes

Aim:

● Participants develop and receive feedback on their personal narrative

Note: In order for everyone to get a fair chance to practice and receive feedback you will need

to be strict with time, otherwise people miss out on sharing.

Develop Story of Self (10mins)

Ask participants to find a quite space and develop their “Story of Self”

TIP: At this point participants may have difficulty feeling like they have a story, or a „moment‟,

or even a reason for caring about climate change.

Encourage them to think about why they are at this training and why and their best

friend/sibling is not

What made them choose climate change over other issues such as poverty

Remind highly engaged people, or people who have always cared about issues, to think

about what moves them, that they can also envisage moving someone who currently

doesn‟t care.

Often participants can be really reluctant to get started, and want to talk it through

rather than write – answer any specific questions and give them a few encouraging

thoughts but then don‟t be afraid to tell them that after 10 mins of thinking and writing

they‟ll get a chance to practice and get feedback and it‟ll seem heaps easier after that

first round.


Practice Telling Story of Self (30 mins)

Break people into pairs and ask them to practice telling their story with a partner (10 mins)

3 minutes each for your story:

Focus on one experience where you have made a choice in your life

Be specific and give lots of details

2 minutes each for feedback:

What is the Challenge, Choice, Outcome in each story?

Were there sections of the story that had especially good details or images (e.g. sights,

sounds, smells, or emotions of the moment)?

Could you identify this person‟s values from the story?

Pairs join together into groups of four – each person has 2 minutes to tell their story, with

3 minutes of feedback. (20 mins)

Remind people to listen to other people‟s stories for ideas and to better understand the

concept – and remind them that Obama‟s team spent 1000 hours developing his, and

that our story of self never stops being developed. This workshop is not about coming

out with a perfect story, but for learning the tools and framework to be able to go away

and develop their story later. It‟s an ongoing process.

Debrief and Wrap Up: 15 minutes

Running the Exercise

Come back together as a group. The lead facilitator will invite feedback from the group, answer

any questions that have come up, and invite one or two chosen participants to get up and tell

their story of self, before providing a recap of learnings and a generic feedback for all

participants.

personal narrative workshop

Documents