International Day for Sharing Life Stories

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January 1, 2008
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Sharing Stories:

How To Organize A Story Tour

Story tours allow participants to explore their community, share personal stories about particular places, and begin seeing familiar (or unfamiliar) places in new ways. Story tours typically have 4 – 5 stops spanning no more than a mile and taking no more than 1 and a half hour. The story tour may take longer if you are planning a reception.

The story tour should be a fun and engaging activity for learning more about your community. It’s important to make sure that the route allows participants to walk comfortably, take breaks when needed and inspire a greater connection to the community. The following are suggestions for making sure your event runs smoothly.

• Welcome participants to the story tour. Give an overview of the tour, introduce the storytellers (who will travel with your group on the tour), as well as a map with all stops marked.

• Briefly explain the purpose of the event and that it is one of many events happening worldwide to celebrate the International Day for Sharing Life Stories.

• Have participants briefly introduce themselves to the group.

• Identify for the group who is leading the group with directions and check in with people to make sure that nobody needs to go to the bathroom.

• Proceed to the stops in order. When the stop is reached, gather participants around so that everybody can hear the storytellers.

• Tour leaders should:

o Prepare to go only as fast as your slowest person.
o Moderate questions and comments from participants.

• Collect contact information for participants and thank them for their participation.

• Gather as a group (preferably at a restaurant, park or community center) and receive feedback about the story tour.

BEFORE THE TOUR:

• Determine what area you want to tour. What neighborhood or area has particular significance to your community? Where will you meet at the beginning of the tour?

• Decide who you want to invite as a storyteller on your story tour. Who do you think has stories about your chosen neighborhood? What destinations do you want to visit? What geographic limitations do you want to put on the tour (we’d advise keeping the tour under one mile in length)?

• Determine what specific spot each storyteller would like to tell a story about and map out the order of the stories and walking route. Create a map of the walking tour to make available to participants.

• Do you want to partner with another organization? If so, how will you determine who is invited or participates? Do you want to limit the number of participants, require an RSVP, or have an open invitation to the public?

• Determine the time of your event. What times generally work best for your participant group? Is this a practical time to try to maneuver a large group in your chosen tour area?

• Do you want to partner with an outside group, such as a local radio station or other media organization, to document the story tour? Do you or your organization want to take photographs of the event for your own archives?

• If your event is open to the public, how do you want to publicize the event? If you are interested in generating press coverage for your event, craft a press release for the event and send it to your local media outlets at least two weeks before the event and a follow-up reminder two days before the event.

• Do you want to hold a reception at the end of the tour? If so, can you find a nearby venue (possibly a restaurant) that is available at the end of your story tour?

• Identify a person (or two) you can count on for encouraging participation and is familiar enough with the area in question to navigate the tour.

• Determine a course of action in case of poor weather.

AFTER THE TOUR:

• Send “thank you” notes to event participants, especially tour leaders, the venue and any other people who helped the event happen.

• Send photos and a description of how your event went to CDS (laura@storycenter.org) so we can include them on our International Day site and archives.

• Consider hosting another storytelling event in your community.

ACTIVITY KITS

HOST ORGANIZATIONS

* Center for Digital Storytelling

* Museu da Pessoa

NAVIGATION