ETHICAL STORYTELLING
A new approach to telling stories and advocacy.
Organizations like City Net use stories to inspire, to educate, and to share their impact. Many of us have joined the collaborative effort to develop solutions to ending homelessness and the multifaceted reasons why homelessness exists. Perhaps you’ve heard a story of a family that had fallen into homelessness due to abuse and through resiliency and support found a home and the story moved you deeply, or perhaps it is a part of your very own story. The emotional response it generated, the truths it revealed, and the urge to become a part of this story then spurred you to act.
Because stories are powerful tools of influence, they must be told ethically.
What Is Ethical Storytelling?
Part of our work at City Net involves teaming up with and learning from other amazing organizations. The Ethical Storytelling movement has been monumental in shaping the standards for storytelling within the nonprofit community. The Ethical Storytelling movement recognizes that it not only matters that these stories are shared and that advocates and donors understand the impact they are making. It matters how these stories are shared. The Ethical Storytelling movement has inspired us to make the commitment to bringing awareness to the importance of ending homelessness through storytelling that is respectful, uplifting and inspiring - we have taken the Ethical Storytelling Pledge.
What to expect:
We do our best to share stories in a way that does not reduce the individual to their challenges and realities.
We do our best to honor our client’s journey and respect that success takes time.
We do not share the real names of our clients. We indicate the use of a pseudonym.
We do not use stories to evoke emotions of pity or directly tie it to fundraising, but do educate and share the incredible bravery and resilience that our clients.
We pair stories with positive photos that do not include direct faces unless direct consent is given.
Every single story we share has the potential to convey hope, struggle, and everything in between. Sharing these stories ethically will allow our partners, readers, advocates, and survivors to understand the impact they are making by joining us in the fight to end street-level homelessness. We hope that the stories we share fill you with the same sense of ambition and fire that you felt when hearing stories about your childhood heroes. We hope you feel encouraged to speak, empowered to act, and emboldened to share your part in the story.
