Introduction
How do we change the narrative to make a better world? How do we tell stories for social change? Do you want to learn how to change hearts and minds on different issues?
Here is a live list of courses. Get in touch if you have a course to add.
Courses – Free
Storytelling for Deep Impact Course
This free online course by SOGI Camapgins is designed to help grassroot groups understand the basics of powerful storytelling to change hearts and minds and specifically to win over “moveable middle” audiences. It can support groups looking for skills on how to structure a story and how to connect a narrative to the emotions, values and life lessons of a group’s target audience.
The course includes the importance of story, how stories are structured, relatability of stories, identifying key story elements (conflict, choice, life lessons), choosing the right messenger, writing a story and delivering your story.
Public Narrative with Marshall Ganz
Learn from Professor Marshall Ganz through this Resistance School free online video course on the organising skill of public narrative.
Marshall Ganz made the following points in What is Public Narrative (2008):
- Public narrative is a leadership art. Leaders draw on narrative to inspire action across cultures, faiths, professions, classes, and eras.
- A story of self communicates who I am – my values, my experience, why I do what I do.
- A story of us communicates who we are – our shared values, our shared experience, and why we do what we do.
- A story of now transforms the present into a moment of challenge, hope, and choice.
Campaign Communications Course
This free online course by SOGI Campaigns is designed to help grassroot groups understand the basics of powerful storytelling to change hearts and minds and specifically to win over “moveable middle” audiences. It can support groups looking for skills on how to structure a story and how to connect a narrative to the emotions, values and life lessons of a group’s target audience.
This course include the importance of story, how stories are structured, relatability of stories, identifying key story elements (conflict, choice, life lessons), choosing the right messenger, writing a story and delivering your story.
Communicating for Change
Clear, powerful communication is a force for social change. But in a world where everyone is constantly scrolling through content, it can be hard to cut through.
To communicate effectively, we need to know who we’re speaking to, what we need to say to connect with them, and how we can reach them.
This free training module from The Changemakers Toolkit by the Sheila McKechnie Foundation focuses on answering these key questions. To do that, we’ll talk about audience identification, narrative framing, and message delivery.
Whether you’re working on or offline, our goal is to help you deliver powerful messages that inspire hope, drive action, and make a change.
Campaigning is all about human connection. To succeed, we need to engage people’s emotions, shift their thinking, and inspire them to act. That’s why effective communication is an essential part of any successful campaign.
This module will help you think more strategically about communicating for change. We’ll provide practical tools and tips that you can use to develop your campaign messages. You can apply them to all your communications; social media content, mail-outs, press releases and face-to-face communications.
Foundations of Persuasive Progressive Messaging, Liberties Knowledge Hub
This course helps activists take their campaigns to the next level. The 7-module course walks you through each step of building a comprehensive, persuasive campaign narrative, beginning with an in-depth look at how and why people form opinions about issues.
Across the seven modules, ‘Foundations of Persuasive Progressive Messaging’ explores:
- How values and worldviews shape people’s opinions
- How to reach the ‘moveable middle’ and convince them to support your cause
- Common messaging mistakes campaigners make and how to correct them
- Step-by-step guide to creating a persuasive narrative
- How to respond to lies from your opponents
- The importance of choosing the right messengers and picking the right tone
- How to convert a winning narrative into communications materials to use in your campaigns
- Many real-world examples to take inspiration from
- Plus much, much more!
How to Message on Human Rights, Liberties Knowledge Hub
This course is a standalone crash course on how to communicate around human rights issues. It will introduce you to some basic rules you can apply to talk about human rights-related causes more persuasively with a public audience. We will flag common communications habits that are working against you, explain why, and outline what to do instead. You will also learn what goes into a persuasive message and what structure you should follow.
The course content is delivered through a series of short videos, with additional guidance and examples in text, as well as quizzes you can work through to check how much you’ve learnt. Each unit has a video of roughly 5 minutes in length, followed by a short quiz on the content of that unit, meaning each unit can be completed carefully in roughly 10-15 minutes, and the entire course in roughly one hour. You will receive a diploma certifying your training within one month of completing the course.
For more tips and guidance, like illustrative examples of how to use images and videos to convey your message, or if you just want to refer back to what you learnt in the course, check out the guide that accompanies this module, ‘How to message on human rights: A communications guide for organisations promoting human rights’.
MichiganX: Storytelling for Social Change
How can storytelling promote social change?
This course develops skills for using stories to deliver messages that affect audiences and shape attitudes for social change. Learn how building empathy and developing characters can offer multiple perspectives on complex problems. Social change happens when listeners or viewers identify with messages delivered through a protagonist they identify with. Theatre artists and professional storytellers offer expertise about how to craft a story that develops empathy and delivers impact.
You will watch video interviews with storytelling experts, view performances, and write your own story for social change. See how stories told from diverse perspectives contribute to understanding new perspectives about pertinent world issues. Learn how effective storytelling can be your tool for change.
This course is for anyone who wants to effectively tell an impactful story.
Courses – Paid
- Storytelling for Change, Small Giants Academy
- Introduction to Storytelling for Social Change, RNTC Media Training Centre
- Getting started with Narrative Change, Public Interest Research Center
- Training and Workshops, The Opportunity Agenda
- Story-based Strategy online training and training calendar
- Hope based Comms Workshops
- Training, OverZero
- The Workshop
- Storytellers for Social Change
- Public Narrative