Our workshop partners are coming up with many creative ways to make sure Silence Speaks stories are seen out in the world. With the permission of storytellers, pieces have been shown at local and national conferences; at staff and provider training sessions about abuse; to potential funders of support and prevention services; and at community events, to mobilize involvement in violence prevention. The potential for this work as a tool for qualitative, community-driven research and evaluation, and for media advocacy, is also being explored.

Examples of how Silence Speaks stories are being used include:

In 2001, the Family Violence Prevention Fund organized a workshop with Filipino youth in San Francisco, to coincide with Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Participants met several times in the weeks leading up to the workshop, for training on violence prevention. Following the workshop, these youth organized a citywide event for their peers. The digital stories were screened; music and spoken word performances were featured; and the storytellers answered questions about their work. The event brought more than 300 young people together to share ideas about how to reduce violence in their communities.

Truth Telling, a project based in California’s Plumas County, is exploring the story of a rural community’s experience with domestic violence. The goal of the project is to evaluate what effects recently-enacted criminal justice reforms are having on the lives of survivors of domestic violence. Women survivors who live in the county are participating in a variety of creative activities, including writing and drama workshops and digital storytelling. The digital stories will be shown to local service providers, government representatives, and policymakers, in order to open a dialogue about what has succeeded and where improvements are needed, in the county’s response to domestic violence.

The SHARe the Word Relationship Violence Prevention Program, based in Santa Barbara, California, does digital storytelling workshops with its Youth Peer Educators. These young people then show their stories in classroom settings, as part of a curriculum that teaches middle- and high-school youth to recognize early warning signs of abusive relationships. Images and words from the stories will also be incorporated into brochures, posters, and PSAs, which will be made available in schools and youth centers and aired on local radio programs. This social marketing and media advocacy campaign will help SHARe create school and community environments, and advocate for local policies, that support healthy teen relationships.

If you would like to explore the possibility of attending or hosting a workshop in your area, please contact us.