With Orton, we are exploring the potential role of storytelling, both traditional and digital forms, in community engagement efforts. Damariscotta has experimented with story circles and story interviews thus far as ways to bring the community together and to give everyone a voice in planning for the town’s future. Sharing stories about our connections to a place, our experiences in that place, our personal hopes for the future of that place slows us down enough to look carefully at what we value in our communities, and invites us to listen deeply to one another, to create bonds and bridges within our communities, and to work towards creative, collaborative solutions to the challenges of our times. Digital Explorations trained the story gatherers, and edited the clips and photos into this digital story to provide a brief glimpse into the project. These first-round story interviews explored residents’ connections to the town.

On April 14, we led a workshop, on planning community storytelling projects, for Orton Family Foundation in Starksboro, Vermont as part of their Art & Soul Project, an initiative to use art to enhance civic engagement in rural communities as they plan for their future. View the slides from the workshop here: