“Narrative approaches assume that people have many skills, competencies, beliefs, values, commitments, and abilities that will assist them to reduce the influence of problems in their lives….Narrative approaches involve ways of understanding the stories of people’s lives, and ways of re-authoring these stories….It is a way of working that is interested in history, the broader context that is affecting people’s lives, and the ethics or politics of this work.”
–Dulwich Centre for Narrative Community Work
How our work differs from conventional community-based approaches:
- It is meaning based rather than issue based.
- It emphasizes relational practices rather than a solution imposed from the outside.
- It encourages and supports individual and community action, change, and responsibility.
- It is culturally contextual and responsive, bringing forth local wisdom and expertise.
- It looks beyond and challenges the dominant story and systems that supports the status quo and marginalization or oppression.
- It invites the co-creation of new stories of meaning, healing, and hope.
- It inspires individuals and communities to re-discover the abilities, resources, insight, and power they already have.
- It incites people to use these assets to take concrete, practical, effective action.
