NOI – Narratives of Impact

Digital storytelling has become a popular method in recent years and has thrived, becoming a tool for social transformation and social justice. In particular, digital storytelling has recently gained a new wave of attention also as a tool for measuring impact and change, but knowledge about it is disparate and largely unexplained.

Therefore, the goal of the Narratives of Impact (NOI) project is a change in the perception of storytelling not only as a powerful tool for creating social change but also as a tool for measuring impact and change.

To reach the aim, NOI has the following objectives:
– better understand how digital stories are used to create impact at local, national, and pan-European levels;
– investigate how stories can be used by activist groups to create communities of change;
– design and oversee the implementation of stakeholder engagement strategy;
– explore how lived experience can be used to create better connections between social services and its users;
– research and analyze the ways how storytelling can measure change and impact;

To meet these objectives, a partnership of five organizations, with digital storytelling expertise, who work in VET and civic society settings has been formed. This partnership spans 5 countries and includes – People’s Voice Media (UK), CRN (Germany), INTRAS (Spain), COSV (Italy), and SNDE (Poland). These organizations will pool their resources, use their existing expertise, undertake research and stakeholder activities, and deliver dissemination activities in order to develop the following results:
– A report on existing methodologies and practices that using digital storytelling to create and/or measure change (IO1)
– A toolkit and associated resources for working with digital stories to create and measure impact (IO2)
– Video guides to support individuals and organizations to use stories to create and measure impact (IO3)
– Train existing informal education trainers and facilitators in techniques to use storytelling in their sectors as a change-making tool and impact measurement apparatus
– Create a network of story-based impact organizations in VET and other fields to create a connected peer support community