The stories of change activity involves collecting, sharing, and reflecting on real stories that describe how a person, community, organization, or system has undergone significant change due to a project, intervention, or event. This method fosters emotional connection, reflective learning, and qualitative impact assessment.
Preparation
- Define the purpose: Clarify why the stories are being collected (e.g., impact evaluation, collective learning, narrative building).
- Prepare a narrative framework: Design guiding questions to structure the stories. Examples:
- What situation or problem existed before the change?
- What happened to bring about the change?
- What was the outcome?
- What did you learn from this experience?
- Necessary materials:
- Paper and pens for notes.
- Recorders or mobile devices to capture the stories (optional).
Step-by-step instructions
- Introduction to the purpose
- Explain the objective of the activity and how stories of change can generate learning and provide evidence of impact.
- Create a safe and open environment for sharing experiences.
- Story collection
- Participants individually reflect on a significant change they have experienced or witnessed.
- Provide the guiding questions to help structure their narratives.
- Optional: Invite participants to write or record their stories to share later.
- Sharing in small groups
- Divide participants into small groups to share their stories.
- Encourage listeners to ask respectful questions to deepen the narratives.
- Selection and collective analysis
- Bring the whole group together and select some stories to share with everyone.
- Facilitate a discussion on key themes, patterns, and lessons identified in the stories.
- Guiding questions for analysis:
- What common elements emerged across the stories?
- What factors seem critical for change to occur?
- How could these lessons be applied in the future?
- Story documentation
- Record the stories and key learnings in an accessible format, such as a report, mural, or video.
- Closing and reflection
- Invite participants to reflect on how they felt sharing and listening to the stories.
- Summarize key learnings and thank everyone for participating.
