Working With Story

Regenerative Educator Training #4: Working With Story

A one-day training in visionary storytelling, supporting you & the youth you work with to harness the power of story to create healthier, more liberating narratives.

Friday 22nd July 2022, 9am-5pm

Location: School 360, Sugar House Lane, Stratford, E15 2QS

“The whole world is a story.” Michael Meade famously said.

Whether we call ourselves a ‘storyteller’ or not, we constantly tell stories – about our lives, our identity, our aspirations for the future…

This training is for anyone working with young people and who recognises how easily trapped in unhelpful stories we can become – “I’m too fat”, “I’m not clever” “I don’t fit in”. The stories we create for ourselves can be truly liberating, or entrapping. Which stories will you choose to tell?

On this creative and participatory day, we help you to use storytelling in your practice to help those you work with to tell more liberating stories.

This is for you if…

You are an educator, teacher, youth worker, facilitator or practising storyteller
You want to address the negative ways in which people in your organisation are talking about themselves, each other and the organisation
You want to learn to improve your storytelling ability and sometimes feel stuck in the stories you tell about yourself
You believe we understand the world through stories and that we are all storytellers
You want to develop presence, articulation, eloquence and vocal ability

Why focus on stories?

Storytelling is an ancient modality that supports wellbeing and positive mental health by bringing awareness to the significance in one’s own experiences. We can think of stories as providing narrative maps that help us recognise subconscious motivations and barriers, moving us from fear to courage, inspiring us and deepening our relationships.

We are all defined, to different extents, by our pain, our grief and we carry the weight of the many challenging moments in our lives. We hold onto these memories as objective facts, forgetting that how we feel is less about the events themselves and more about what we made them mean. These become the stories we live by.

However, storytelling can help us to understand ‘Our Personal Story’ as part of a process or a cycle, helping us to explore where we might be on a journey, and where we could go next. We begin to create choice. When we change the subjective meaning we’ve given to life events, we open ourselves to the possibility of living a healthier identity, having deeper relationships and being able to bring others with us on that journey.

Why attend?

You will leave with an easy to use toolkit that you can apply immediately to facilitate others to work with story
You will go on an experiential storytelling journey
You’ll learn storytelling techniques that include mindfulness, collaboration, nature connection, embodiment and African martial arts
You will explore an African approach to storytelling & hear storytelling delivered by a professional African Storyteller
You’ll feel more confident working with story and helping other’s to tell liberating stories

Training Testimonials

“I was truly moved by this experience. It was interactive, personal, filled in the gaps in my knowledge and made me feel much more confident with facilitating in a variety of settings.”
Primary Headteacher

“I found the whole day really powerful. If you want a different approach to engaging with your teams & young people, sign up for this training.”
Secondary School Deputy Headteacher

Friday 22nd July 2022

Pricing

The true cost of this training is £110 per participant. However, we charge on a sliding scale to maximise equity of access. whilst ensuring we cover our costs. Please be mindful that if you purchase a package at the lowest end of the scale when you can truthfully afford the standard ticket price, you are limiting access to those who truly need a bursary place.

For Schools/Organisations

£160 – High – For independent fee-paying schools and organisations earning £100k+ a year – this price also widens access for those on lower income
£110 – Standard – For non-fee paying schools, organisations earning between £20-100k a year – this price reflects the true cost of delivering our services
£80 – Low – For schools rated ‘requires improvement’ by Ofsted and organisations earning under £20k a year

For Individuals

Please read about our sliding scale here to decide which ticket to purchase.

£110 – Standard (pays for your place and covers our costs)
£160 – Abundant (pays for your place and supports another)
£80 – Subsidised – (for those in the middle of our sliding scale)
£50 – Bursary (for those at the lower end of our sliding scale)

*please contact hello@thevisionaries.org.uk if you have any further questions or would like to pay via invoice.

Your Facilitator

Sola Adebiyi is a community builder, holistic educator, professional storyteller and youth worker. Sola has over 30 years’ experience of working in and with schools. As a group facilitator his passion is for youth empowerment, creative learning and rites of passage. He is a lead facilitator for LIFEbeat and runs a monthly online African empowerment storytelling showcase; facilitates rites of passage programmes; co-led an inspirational cultural youth charity; is presently lead facilitator in two creative camp-based youth empowerment charities and is a creative entrepreneurial consultant with African school leaders and youth. As a Mythic Medicine Practitioner he describes himself as ‘playfully serious’ and draws on African Martial Arts, Nature engagement, Drumming, Storytelling, Creative Arts, Mindfulness and Visualisation.