own your story: the power of storytelling

Own Your Story: The Power of Storytelling

OWN MY POWER

2011 Youth Organizing SummitSierra Health Foundation's Grizzly Creek Ranch

September 16th - 18th • Portola, Ca

By

Dr. Victor Santiago Pineda

Pineda Foundation for Youth/World ENABLED

A Story About Cody

• I hate Physical Education

• Cody was in my PE class

• Cody was a bully

Self Respect

• Who am I?

• What do I like?

• What am I good at?

• What do people like about me?

• What goals do I have for the future, and

what plan to I have to achieve them?

Self Presentation

• How do I interact with others?

• How do others interact with me?

Why do we like Stories?

• We like stories because:

• We are connected with the

characters

• We care about the story

• We want to see the resolution

It’s Your Life

• Ed Robert’s Story

• Being a movie star!

• Only movie stars get this kind of

attention.

It’s Your Movie

• You’re the actor

• You’re the director

• You’re even the producer

• SOON YOU’LL LEARN TO WRITE YOUR

STORY!

Why write a story?

• First think: Why and How are Stories

Produced?

• Share stories that support positive

individual and collective change

Core Values and Principles

• Everyone has many powerful stories to tell.

– Sharing insights experiences is valuable to

those who speak and to those who witness

stories

– People who think they are uninteresting or

unmemorable possess beneath this mask a

vivid, complex, and rich body of stories waiting

to be told.Center for Digital Storytelling, Values and Principles, http://www.storycenter.org/principles.html

Listening is hard

• Most people are either too distracted,

too impatient to be really good

listeners.

• Listening allows storytellers to

journey into the matter at hand.

Perceiving our World• People see, hear and perceive the

world differently

• Forms and approaches are also

different.

• Maps, frameworks, possibilities in

storytelling abound, find one that’s

right for you.

Creativity

• Creative activity is human activity

• We make music, draw, dance and tell stories

• Sometimes we are told to hide our talents and

feel inadequate

• Encourage people in artistic expression

• Inspire individuals and communities to

transform

Technology

• Assistive tools for creativity

– I-Phone, I-Pad, I-Brain

• But only tools, we must use them

thoughtfully to express our stories in

the most powerful ways

Sharing Stories for Change

• Sharing Stories can lead to positive change

• Supporting groups to make media is one step

• Reflection and modifying behavior, treating

others differently, more compassion

• Speak about social justice, get involved!

• Sharing stories gives you the power to make a

real difference!

A Story about Leadership

• It’s About Ability – An Explanation on

the Convention on the Rights of

Persons with Disabilities

Sacred Storytelling

Epic Storytelling

http://parablestoday.com/

Survival Storytelling

http://parablestoday.com/

Stories through Dance

http://parablestoday.com/

Family Stories

http://parablestoday.com/

Community or Tribal Stories

http://parablestoday.com/

Stories with a Mission

http://parablestoday.com/

Writing Time: Free-Writing

• The moment when ……….happened, I changed.

• I feel stronger when I am with....

• I feel most comfortable with……

• Others think I am a ……

• My community outside of school is ……,My community

inside school is …

• I identify myself as a …..

• I live between two or more cultures….

• When I look in the mirror I see….

Writing Time: Core Message

• Write a 25-word autobiography in 3

minutes.

• Keep 10 of those words that define you.

• Only keep 5 of those words.

• Arrange those words 3 times to form a

short poem.

CAPE, the Curriculum on Abuse Prevention and Empowerment

• Abuse of people with disabilities and elders creates a significant barrier to independent living and

full integration into the community. To reduce the incidence of abuse, WID created this

comprehensive training curriculum in English and Spanish to educate people with disabilities,

services providers, and family members about abuse awareness and prevention strategies. CAPE

explores fundamental issues of abuse, best-practices training approaches, and personal stories of

resisting and recovering from abuse. CAPE focuses particularly on preventing abuse by anyone in a

“helping role,” including informal or paid assistants, family members, and services providers.

• With CAPE, WID is offering comprehensive empowerment and self-protection tools directly to

disabled people living independently. These tools include developing self-respect, asserting

boundaries, getting help, disclosing abuse, knowing one’s rights, learning self-advocacy skills,

practicing safety planning, and building resilience. These are the “CAPE-abilities” that can interrupt

and prevent abusive behavior and help those recover who have experienced abuse. CAPE is unique

in its focus on peer support in abuse prevention and its multimedia format, based on proven

educational theory and practice. CAPE uses attractive, motivating multimedia educational

resources relevant to daily life, such as movies, quizzes, learning games, comic-book images, and 

stories by and about people with disabilities.

It’s Our Story: Understanding Disability

History and Disability Pride

•Scott Cooper & The Victor Pineda Foundation

Take a look at what people with disabilities from YOUR generation are doing (link)

Lots of pride, lots of strength, lots of talent, lots of power

Martin Luther King, Jr.About 13% of Americansare black

Martin Luther King, Jr.About 13% of Americansare black

Harvey MilkAbout 10% of Americansare homosexual

Martin Luther King, Jr.About 13% of Americansare black

Harvey MilkAbout 10% of Americansare homosexual

Martin Luther King, Jr.About 13% of Americansare black

Harvey MilkAbout 10% of Americansare homosexual

Martin Luther King, Jr.About 13% of Americansare black

Ed RobertsAbout 20% of Americanslive with a disability

“It’s Just Us”

by Eric Clow

(link)

The Story of the Disability Rights

Movement hasn’t spread enough!

Keep our stories alive.

So we’ve worked to collect the stories

The “It’s Our Story” Online Database

EXPLOREWitness the Experience

• Every piece of media in our

archives online, fully

transcribed, fully

searchable

• Capitalizing on latest

advances in video

archiving, library science,

server technology

ENHANCEUpload Your Insights

• Users can upload video/written

responses to items in our online

database

• Turns history into a dialogue

ENABLECreate a Story

• Online, free, and public

video editor program

• Allows editors access to

all of our media

• Empowers anyone,

anywhere, to author

their own tellings of the

history of the disability

community

ENGAGEShare Your Perspectives

• Easily publish your videos and writings on

social networking sites

• Reach a global audience with the click of a

button

• Here’s what our website will make possible

An example of what this site will make possible:“It’s Our Story” trailer

So how do you fit into the picture?

Get Involved• Volunteer a few hours a week online or at

our office in Berkeley or from home!

• Spend summer 2012 with “It’s Our

Story”

• Three distinct career tracks:✦Entrepreneurial: form and manage partnerships with

business, foundations, and government sectors

✦Creative Innovation: develop visual/video content, design

and build cutting-edge online tools

✦Community: build bridges with schools, organizations;

coordinate disability awareness events

One last story...(link)

Victor Santiago PinedaAnd

Scott Cooperwww.itsourstory.org

ItsOurStory@gmail.com