This year, we are offering a new opportunity for Meadowlark and Integrated Behavioral Health Initiative grantees to participate in a storytelling workshop series.
This workshop series will teach grantees how to collect and share personal impact stories in a safe and compelling way.
Telling the story of a person’s lived experience is a powerful way to demonstrate the impact of integrated care. The ability to collect and share personal impact stories will give sites the capacity to communicate with their communities about the new services that are available, along with the importance and benefit of their work.
Workshop Requirements
Interested sites must commit to attending five virtual training sessions over 12 weeks and completing a public-facing work plan item. Participation is by invitation only.
The work plan item is a personal impact story told either by a staff person or a patient. For new grantees, there is an option to produce a press release announcing the new project.
Each site will receive individual support to identify, produce, and share the story with its chosen audience.
For sites that can commit to the requirements and are invited to attend, $5,000 will be added to their grant amount to compensate for personnel time.
If you are interested in this workshop series, please contact Melinda Buchheit.
Session Dates & Descriptions
The workshops will be led by Elizabeth Wenk and Nick Seaver from Burness Communications and Melinda Buchheit from the Montana Healthcare Foundation.
Session 1: What Makes a Good Story (Thu, May 11, 12-1 pm)
In this session, we will learn what makes a good story and the wide variety of stories you can tell. We will focus on personal stories that connect with and empower peers and patient stories that demonstrate the need and impact of your project.
Session 2: Engaging Patients to Tell Their Stories Ethically and Responsibly (Thu, May 25, 12-1 pm)
In this session, you will learn how to identify who is best suited to tell the story idea you brainstormed for homework. Supporting a patient in telling their story can be very impactful but requires trust so that the patient feels confident that they are telling their story on their own terms.
Session 3: Story Development (Thu, Jun 8, 12-1 pm)
Good storytellers share complex ideas in a compelling and engaging way. Learning how to do this well is beneficial as a tool for connecting with peers and patients and marketing your work to your community.
In this session, you will learn how to turn your ideas into a story by learning how to piece your story together in a compelling way and avoid common pitfalls and distractions.
Session 4: Sharing Stories Effectively (Thu, Jun 22, 12-1 pm)
Once you have a powerful story, you need to connect with your audiences where they are.
In this session, we will talk about different avenues to use stories and meet your audiences where they are.
Session 5: Sharing Your Story (Thu, Jul 13, 12-1 pm)
Consider this a story slam!
In this session, each site will share the story they created with the group. Trainers and participants will provide feedback to help improve your story.
NOTE: The Montana Healthcare Foundation will support each site in preparing and sharing its story publicly in the mode of sharing that was identified in the course.