The Center for Design Thinking’s Power+Place Collaborative consults with nonprofit organizations to contribute to civic change through student storytelling.
This spring, the Director of Design Thinking, Danielle Lake and the Center for Design Thinking partnered with Project Pericles to mentor campuses around the United States in how to cultivate civic narrative change in their communities.
The Center is advising participants in their new Civic Story Lab Fellowship, an initiative by Project Pericles that is designed to encourage universities to participate in civic engagement endeavors through multimedia projects. These storytelling projects will showcase “grassroots changemaking” that strengthens agency, builds community partnerships, and fosters democratic conversations.
The fellowship’s goals closely align with the mission of the Center and its support of the Power+Place Collaborative. Since 2018, the collaborative has worked with residents across Alamance County to collect oral history, create digital stories and examine the memories and stories of people who have shaped the community.
Lake, along with design catalysts Berenice Sanches-Rosaldo and Andrea Camo Conde, and community partner James Shields Jr., the manager of the African American Cultural Arts and History Center, helped lead the consulting workshop.
Lake, Shields, Sanches-Rosaldo and Camo Conde helped participants think through three different ways to advocate for systemic change through storytelling. These frameworks explored strategic storytelling, investigative follow-up, and activating community action. The Center advised the Project Pericles attendees to follow these methods since the Center and its Power+Place Collaborative use storytelling as a means to build trust across our community.
The Center will continue to consult Project Pericles’ Civic Story Lab Fellowship throughout the spring and summer.