A process for visual storytelling

1. Where to start? - Picking your seed

The starting point for telling your story is you. No matter if you already have a clear idea of what you would like your story to be about or if this whole idea still seems quite daunting to you - there are great stories within each of us as well as the capacity to bring them out. For this project, we want to tell captivating stories about community food growing initiatives that explore the many ways they can contribute to building a radically hopeful future.

Storytelling always has two roles: the storyteller and the listener. You are going to be the storyteller here. So, the next step is determining who your listeners are going to be. Knowing who you want to tell your story to can help you define exactly what you want to say and think about what type of language and framing you might want to use. Your listeners could for example be your other community members, other community garden initiatives, potential community members that you might want to attract or decision-makers in your local context. For each of those groups, you can tell your story in slightly different ways that will best suit their approach using language that is familiar to them and that they can relate to. In professional terms, this is called your audience and can help you set the tone of your story. Thinking about your listeners and audience is really related to the purpose and potential impact of your story. We will talk more about the impact and dissemination of your stories in the final part of the course.

Activity (10 minutes): Exploring community flourishing

Go back to the padlet exploration of community flourishing and resilience. Spend a few minutes re-exploring the page and note down any thoughts, ideas or feelings in your learning journal. What kind of images come up for you? Do these images and writings remind you of something in your own community garden?

Is there one thought, image, feeling or story that stands out to you in particular? Hold onto that thought, this will be your seed.