I spend a lot of my time, as many journalists do, trying to convince people to share their experiences and stories. Sometimes it takes a lot of work.
Most of my persuasive skills have to be channeled into convincing people they have a story worth telling, that their experiences matters. It does matter. The telling of every day experiences informs and connects people. Reporters can put connective tissue made up of context and background around these experiences and out comes a news story.
But, another way (maybe a more exciting way) to inform and connect people is to put more power into the hands of listeners, readers and sources.
We now have another tool to help us do this, our mobile storytelling booth.
Nothing too fancy, but it will let us record lots of people who want to share an experience, reflect on something going on in their community, or who want to document an important event. It can even be used for groups of people to interview on another. Each time the booth goes out we'll help craft questions or prompts to help people tell their stories.
If you think you might have some people with experiences that can inform or connect people around the state tell me about it here.
A few thing to things to remember. We don't do advocacy or promotional events, and these stories need to fit into the State of Opportunity project. We're looking to document what will make families and children in Michigan successful or what can stack the odds against them.
You'll start to see or hear what comes out of the booth soon. It's first stop is Sexton High School in Lansing. Where will it go next?