Sympathy Leads to Charity, Empathy Leads to Change: A conversation about partnering with people to tell their own stories
There is growing support that telling personal, deeply human stories is an essential part of creating change. At the same time, storytelling can be resisted as a practice by providers, communications staff, and advocates who often view it as inherently exploitative to already marginalized communities. This webinar delves into a tension often ignored: research shows that evoking pity is more likely to raise money for short-term goals and services, but it’s also more likely to more deeply embed stereotypes that make long-term social and policy change more difficult.
In this hour-long webinar Kate Marple, Director of Communications at the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership looks at storytelling research and discusses tangible strategies organizations can take to partner with people who use their services to shape the stories they tell both about individuals and about broader policies. This webinar highlights the impact of putting the individuals most affected by any given issue in the driver’s seat when it comes to framing and sharing their own stories.
This webinar is great both for front-line staff wrestling with how to find and share stories, as well as for communications and development team members.