Capacity Building at MOVE

At MOVE, our goal is for our community partners to have the capacity in-house to produce and disseminate stories. At our quarterly advisory board meeting on Friday, it was exciting to hear about the different ways that MOVE partners are integrating digital storytelling into their outreach strategies. 

Abbie Zahler of International Community Health Services showed a few pieces from their latest training. Abbie, along with two other ICHS staff, led a team of eight Americorps and other staff from ICHS and Sea Mar in a workshop over the course of two and a half days in October. The results? A new batch of compelling stories ranging from alcoholism to food policy that will be uploaded to the MOVE website later this month, used in various community outreach effforts, and showcased in the MOVE kiosk in ICHS's waiting room. According to Abbie, "We started creating digital stories as a way to promote behavior and lifestyle change for patients at risk for diabetes. As time has gone on and more and more of our staff and supporters were trained , stories have emerged naturally - our storytellers have amazing experiences and sharing their own stories about health and equity have allowed us to expand our scope to everything from healthy eating to breast cancer to hepatitis B."

Over at the Bike Alliance, where MOVE staffer Seth Schromen-Wawrin is also on staff, Seth worked with Bike Alliance partner, Frank Haydon, to create a piece to showcase at their annual fundraiser. 

Seth went through a MOVE workshop less than a year ago, and is now one of MOVE's lead trainers. Often people ask, "But community organizations don't have the time or capacity to produce videos in house, do they?" MOVE partners continue to prove that community organizations don't need to rely on hiring expensive production teams, with training and support, staff can take this strategy and run (or bike) with it! Good work team!