In this webinar, held by Katja Palaic and Edel Ryder from YouthBank International, we explored several critical themes and strategies on how to harness the power of storytelling, especially in the context of civic education.

The session began by emphasising how storytelling can engage and make civic education relevant for young people, foster emotional connections, stimulate critical thinking, and inspire action. By providing opportunities and platforms for young individuals to share their stories, we empower them to become active contributors to their communities and society as a whole.

The presentation showcased the YouthBank model as an example of integrating storytelling into civic education initiatives, underscoring how stories can be utilised to achieve different purposes, including reflection, promotion, recruitment, and fundraising.

Storytelling is a powerful tool for reflection as it enables individuals to organise and comprehend their experiences, thoughts, and emotions in a meaningful way. Stories weave together seemingly unrelated events, facilitating fresh insights and empathy for others’ experiences. By reflecting on stories, one can discover personal themes, patterns, and values, ultimately making sense of their life journey.

For the purposes of promotion, storytelling can be positioned as a tool to capture attention, evoke emotions, enhance message retention, foster relatability, and humanise organisations.

Similarly, storytelling in recruitment enables potential candidates to connect with an organisation’s mission, find inspiration in the experiences of past employees, establish a personal connection with narratives, and understand the tangible impact of civic education, while also highlighting various opportunities and role models within the community.

In fundraising, storytelling can be utilised as a persuasive tool to emotionally engage donors, illustrate the impact of their contributions, personalise messages to donor interests, build trust through authenticity, and issue a compelling call to action.

The webinar also touched upon the essential components of a story — character, conflict, challenge, choice, and resolution — along with crafting a story process involving understanding the audience, defining the story’s purpose, focusing on the message, choosing the appropriate storytelling method, and effectively writing the story.

We also looked into the synergy between data and storytelling, as well as the importance of measuring impact by analysing collected stories to identify common themes, patterns, and changes over time, as well as seeking anecdotal evidence of personal transformations and shifts in perspective.

Overall, the webinar conveyed that storytelling is a potent tool for enhancing civic education by engaging and inspiring young individuals, fostering reflection, and supporting promotion, recruitment and fundraising efforts, thereby making civic education more relevant and impactful.