Story Gathering Guide.

Gather true stories of the change your work makes, through relationship and real listening, in the person's own voice, always within the consent and dignity standard you have already set.

In Tell Your Impact Stories with Dignity, after the consent and dignity standard is set, never before.

Find people whose stories are theirs to tell

Identify people whose lives your work genuinely changed and who might want to share

Ask within your consent standard, and let a real no be a real no, with no pressure and no cost to their services

Listen well

Listen far more than you prompt. The best stories are given, not extracted

Ask open questions, and follow what matters to the person, not just what serves your appeal

Capture the story in the person's own words where you can, not paraphrased into your voice

Capture the whole person

Record their agency and their strengths, not only their hardship. Ask what they did, what they hope, what they are proud of, not just what they suffered

A person is never only their worst moment. Gather enough to show a whole human

The record

Store each story with its consent on file, and a note of what the person did and did not agree to

A well-gathered story is true, freely given, and in the person's own voice, with their strength showing alongside their need. If your notes read only as hardship, you gathered pity, not a story; go back and find the person's agency. Feeds the Story Shaping Guide.

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