Multicultural Storytelling Toolkit

Multicultural Storytelling: A New Process for Community Engagement

storytelling-1

The quality of engagement between institutions and the communities they serve largely determines whether policies and programs reflect the interests of all groups. In 2006, the Minneapolis Health Department (MHD) developed a community advisory committee reflective of the predominant racial/ethnic groups residing in Minneapolis. This Urban Health Agenda Community Advisory Committee was charged with helping the department develop a new community engagement model.

To this end, the department embarked upon a partnership to pilot a multicultural health storytelling project.

Background

The Multicultural Storytelling Toolkit grew out of a series of ethnic-specific inter-generational storytelling events held in Minneapolis. Ten storytelling events were held and videotaped with members of the: African American, American Indian, Caucasian, Hmong, Latino, Somali, and Vietnamese communities. Gender-specific events were held in the African American and Somali communities. The focus of the events was to tell us about a time when your family/community was healthy.

The department and advisory committee completed a short video synopsis of the events which also emphasizes the power of stories and listening in order to begin taking action. While 6 dominant themes are highlighted throughout the video, the uniqueness of each different cultural group is also illustrated. Since many stories were shared in the native languages of the respective communities, English subtitles are provided within the video.

Goals

To assist health/human service professionals to improve their responsiveness to multicultural communities
To increase understanding of how multicultural communities define health as a result of a local initiative
To teach health/human service professionals how to use storytelling as a community engagement process with communities they serve

Why Use This Toolkit?

Benefits of Using Multicultural Storytelling

Preferred way to share information in most communities
Input from the community improves health delivery
Empowers storytellers and community members to be actively involved in their health and healing
Draws attention towards and respect of untapped skills, talents and assets community members possess
Builds long-term relationships more easily among professionals and the communities they serve
Promotes inclusiveness and determines meaning behind quantitative data
Certified Promising Practice by National Association of County & City Health Officials

What Distinguishes Our Storytelling Process?

Strength-based
Intergenerational
Culturally and linguistically-tailored
Storytelling events are led by members of the community
Community members analyze the meaning of the stories
Cross-cultural process strengthens collective voice and trustful relationships among professionals, institutions and communities they serve