·01. Relationship building, finding the unexpected story and setting goals. Session 1, up to Session 3

Session 1, up to session 3 are specifically designed to build trust, the relationship between Story trainer and Storyteller and to understand the storyteller’s unique learning needs, storytelling goals, likes and dislikes to ensure a customised 1:1 learning journey can be delivered within the guiding framework of the program. Flexibility is built into the program to enable you to determine whether you feel 2 or up to 3 sessions are required, depending on your reflection on the first session.

 Through spending time together and intentional enquiry the end goal is the completion of the Storytelling Goal plan. This provides the guiding anchor for the 1:1 Learning journey. By the last relationship building session you should be able to complete the Storytelling goal plan.

 By the last relationship building session you should also have worked through the Storyteller survey which is very important to complete as it helps us measure an individual’s baseline and demonstrate growth and change by participation in the program. You will work with the storyteller to complete this again at the end of their learning journey as well. It contains the same question set as the survey is designed to measure change in self confidence and belief to undertake a domain specific task.

02.        Storytelling Principles:

Leverage the story discussion that arose out of activity 1 to segue into covering the Storytelling Principles (easy read version) on page 9.

 While this may appear as a very light session there is a lot of information and during trial workshops this took at least one hour and was a manageable workload for participants.

 Please take 5 minutes at the end of your session to complete the Story Trainer feedback form while it is fresh in your mind. The Centre for Stories Coordinator will arrange a meeting to discuss your experience in your first session.

Activity 04. Intentional activity: required content

 It’s important during the relationship building sessions that the following information is discussed at some point;

 Discuss Consent and Ownership

If you aim to collect people’s stories, photographs or any other impressions during this process, you will need to obtain consent from the storytellers. Storytellers in the pilot would have already completed consent forms, however the list below outlines some useful points on consent that you can go over with the storytellers, particularly if they have questions or concerns.

The following has been written as if directed to the storytellers.

01. What will happen to my story after I share it? Your story may be recorded and/or filmed provided you give your full, written consent. If you sign one of our consent forms, we may then upload the story and share it on our website, social media, and other communications channels and reports. If third-parties like radio stations or media broadcasters want to re-share your story, we will reach out to you to get your consent.

 02. Who owns my story and will I get paid for sharing it? You, the storyteller, own your story. You own the copyright of the story. By giving consent to Centre for Stories, you are licensing your story to Centre for Stories and allowing our organisation to share it. You will usually be paid a flat honorarium fee for sharing your story however this depends on each project and is determined on a case-by-case basis, and must be agreed to in writing between yourself and Centre for Stories.

 03. How can I share my story anonymously? Sometimes you may want to share your story but keep your identity anonymous. This is perfectly reasonable and can be arranged quite easily. We can do this in multiple ways: giving you an alias (a fake name), not taking or using any photos of you where you can be visually identified, and even getting someone else to read out your story so that your voice is not identifiable.

04. What if I change my mind about sharing my story or want to change certain details? You may agree to share your story and then later change your mind. This is fine - just make sure you contact us at info@centreforstories.com requesting that your story be taken taken from our public forums. HOWEVER - we must be transparent that once a story has been shared online we cannot promise it hasn’t been saved by someone else or re-shared on another platform without our knowing. If you want certain aspects of your story changed, like your transcript or website description edited, that can be done quite easily. Changing the recording itself may be more difficult and while we will do our best to do this, we cannot promise we will be able to change certain aspects of the recording that are out of our control.

05. Will I get support or other opportunities after I share this story? Once you have shared your story with Centre for Stories, you will be asked if you want to join our ‘alumni’ database and we will keep you in mind for future paid storytelling events and opportunities. You may be considered for future storytelling training work. While we cannot promise paid employment, our goal is to support your individual needs and career ambitions. Please let us know what you want to get out of the workshops after the workshops end by contacting us at info@centreforstories.com.

 Please ensure the Storytelling Goal plan and Storyteller Evaluation are completed by the end of session 2/3 and prior to commencing the Story Training. Please also compete your trainer feedback form after each session.