You may be asking what is community storytelling, and whether your street’s stories count. In short, it is residents telling and listening to stories about their shared place, so local voices shape the account.
This explainer sits within the wider field of community stories, where residents record and share what their places mean to them.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Community meetings held by the Sipayik Environmental Department and UMaine | 2019 |
| Priority narratives identified for the Sipayik storytelling team | 4 narratives |
| Food-history span in Boston Chinatown’s Immigrant History Trail | 1920s to 2021 |
| Tufts Tisch College storytelling discussion published | March 28, 2022 |
| Centre for Public Impact storytelling blog post published | 2 September 2021 |
These figures come from the Tufts Tisch College write-up and the Centre for Public Impact blog post. Dates and project details can change, so check the source before you rely on them.
What community storytelling means in practice
Community storytelling is the practice of residents sharing, collecting and listening to stories about the place they live in. The stories may be personal, but together they describe a neighbourhood, a town or a group’s shared history.
There is no tidy rulebook. A student discussion published by Tufts’ Tisch College on March 28, 2022 says there is no single definition of storytelling or of its place in research, and it describes roles such as speaker and listener, plus power dynamics between researchers and community participants. You can read it at the Tisch College site.
What most examples share is a handful of habits:
- Community members help decide which stories are told.
- Listening counts as much as speaking.
- The stories are treated as collective, not owned by an outsider.
The Centre for Public Impact makes the last point directly: stories about a community are a collective story. Its post of 2 September 2021 also reports that stories of change are often sitting in communities without being told or celebrated, which is a good reason to start. See the Centre for Public Impact post for the full discussion.
Forms and purposes of community stories
A community story does not have to be a polished essay. The Centre for Public Impact says stories can be conveyed through written word, documentary, film, oral storytelling, immersive experiences and more, as set out in its storytelling blog post.
The same post lists many reasons people tell them:
- Therapy and healing.
- Learning and teaching.
- Building relationships and connection.
- Shifting perspectives and building empathy.
- Advocacy.
- Measurement and evaluation.
Knowing the purpose matters, because what a “good story” looks like depends on what you want to achieve. A story meant to help neighbours remember a lost shop will be shaped differently from one meant to persuade a funder.
The post also offers an image worth keeping: stories are like stars. Alone they can shine, but the real power comes when stories combine into narrative constellations that shape how people understand the world and their place in it.
Place-based examples from Boston and Maine
The Tufts write-up describes community storytelling projects in very different settings. They are named here only as neutral examples, and this site has no connection with either.
Boston Chinatown’s Immigrant History Trail
The trail is a project under the Chinatown Community Land Trust that aims to uplift the immigrant and working-class histories of the neighbourhood. A volunteer team of activists, researchers and community members creates physical markers such as posters, stickers, road signs and banners. According to the Tufts account, the plaques ask passers-by to make a phone call, and the caller then hears a story.
One strand of the trail covers food histories, ranging from bootlegging in the 1920s to the legacy of the oldest restaurant in Chinatown in 2021. The student who worked on it said a narrative is not only about what happened and when, but also about the people involved and the personal and political stakes.
Storytelling at Sipayik, Maine
The Sipayik Environmental Department and UMaine held community meetings in 2019 where residents named the social and ecological issues they saw as priorities. Following that input, the department identified four priority narratives and set up an inter-organisation team to tell them, as the Tisch College report explains.
Tribal members craft the stories, with technical and administrative support from non-tribal members. The graduate student quoted in the write-up said she took part as an active listener, not as a facilitator.
Principles that keep community stories honest
Good intentions are not enough, because a story can flatten the people it describes. The Centre for Public Impact post suggests several guardrails, which you can find in its full text.
- Listen before you shape. Good stories emerge from deep listening, rather than retrofitting what you hear to fit the story you want to tell.
- Protect dignity. When someone other than the storyteller tells a story, it should be collected and told in ways that preserve dignity, agency and nuance.
- Respect readiness. Telling stories takes vulnerability, and some stories of pain are not yet ready to be told. One practitioner’s advice was to tell stories from scars, not wounds.
- Keep the tensions. Storytelling is not about distilling a single truth, and stories should celebrate successes as well as explore what has not gone well, and why.
The Tufts write-up adds a point about power: storytelling asks community members and researchers alike to be vulnerable and to listen actively to one another. Credit and control matter as much as the final product.
Limits and risks to plan for
Community storytelling is not automatically helpful. The Tufts write-up cautions that it can be unhelpful when projects and people do not fit well with the local context, as noted on the Tisch College page.
The Centre for Public Impact points to another weak spot. When professional storytellers are brought in, they often spend very little time with a community, whereas iterative storytelling, where the storyteller is embedded along the journey, produces richer and truer insights.
Stories about change can also be hard to fit into a beginning, middle and end. Many small initiatives, new relationships and new mindsets happen together, so a tidy line may not describe what really happened.
Next steps for your own community
You do not need a large budget to begin, but you do need a plan. Start with the questions the Tufts write-up raises about participatory work: which questions and projects get priority, and who approaches them.
- Ask residents what stories matter to them before choosing a format.
- Name the purpose: remembering, teaching, advocacy or something else.
- Agree who tells each story and who decides how it is shared.
- Choose a form that fits, from a recorded conversation to a physical marker.
- Share drafts back with the people in them before anything goes public.
If you want to collect local memories, the guide on how to start a community memory project walks through the groundwork. For interview-based approaches, these oral history project ideas offer starting points.
Frequently asked questions
Is community storytelling the same as oral history?
Show answer
They overlap, but they are not identical. Oral history is one way to gather spoken stories, while the Centre for Public Impact lists written word, documentary, film and immersive experiences as other forms of storytelling.
Who should tell a community’s stories?
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Ideally the people the stories belong to. At Sipayik, tribal members craft the stories with support from non-tribal members, and where an outsider tells a story, the Centre for Public Impact says it must preserve dignity, agency and nuance.
Does every story need a happy ending?
Show answer
No. The Centre for Public Impact says stories should celebrate successes as well as explore what has not gone well, and why.
Can storytelling count as research?
Show answer
It can. The Tufts write-up says storytelling becomes a participatory research practice when community voices help inform scientific processes and decision making.
