RQP Voter Initiative Stories

During the pilot of the RQP Voter Education Initiative in 2004(formerly known as the Better Questions, Better Decisions Voter Education Initiative (BQBD), a number of participants have narrated their own digital stories, telling us in their own words how RQP training has impacted them.

What is a "digital story"?

Digital stories are created as multimedia novices learn to blend together their own voice, still photography, home video, and other artifacts into brief digital videos. In July and August 2004, Natasha Freidus of Creative Narrations worked with participants enrolled in adult education programs in Arizona and New Hampshire to help them produce first-person multimedia narratives. The participants were asked to focus on their experiences with public institutions and the connection to voting. In a collaborative workshop setting, participants developed, recorded, and edited their own stories.

Why stories?

Documenting your own story is a powerful process of self-discovery. The stories we recorded put a human face on the issues at stake in an election and serve as a powerful tool that resonates with other adults in the same situation. These stories also offer a refreshingly honest alternative to the same old stories we see in our newspapers and on TV. We have produced a short compilation video of the stories created during recent trainings.

"Where is the help..." by Renee Harding	"How the Heart Was Helped" by Steve Hupp	"You Can Change" by Esther Mullenax
"Why Don't You Give Up" by Kerri Champagne	"Babies Health..." by Laura Felix	"One Number Can Count" by Angela Perron
"Nunca es Tarde para Empezar" by Rosa Morales	"Waiting and Waiting..." by Conchita Rodriguez

To download a guide detailing how to use these stories, click here. If you have discovered other ways to use these stories, you can [[:register|join]] the RQP Netowrk to share your idea with other educators. To learn more about digital storytelling, click [[:http://www.creativenarrations.com|here]].