What's Happening?
Sara Gómez, founder of Stories for Collective Change and co-founder of The Understory, is championing a new approach to storytelling within global health and non-profit organizations. Based in Tivoli, Italy, Gómez has spent over two decades working in global health across
various countries, including Mexico, India, and the United States. Her work now focuses on helping organizations develop storytelling capacities and communication strategies that prioritize dignity, trust, and participatory practices. Gómez's methodology emphasizes shifting power dynamics by empowering individuals whose stories are being told, allowing them to control the narrative. This approach stems from her own experiences documenting stories where the subjects often had little say in how their experiences were represented. She advocates for methods like Photovoice, which gives cameras to community members to document their own realities, thereby shifting the power of narration. Gómez also openly shares her own professional struggles, including financial uncertainty and mental health challenges, to foster authentic connections and trust within her community.
Why It's Important?
Gómez's work is important because it addresses a critical ethical challenge in how stories are collected and disseminated by non-profits and global health organizations. Traditionally, the power dynamic often favors the storyteller or the organization, potentially leading to misrepresentation or exploitation of the subjects' experiences. By advocating for participatory storytelling and trauma-informed practices, Gómez aims to ensure that the dignity and agency of individuals are maintained. This shift can lead to more authentic and impactful narratives, fostering greater trust between organizations and the communities they serve. For U.S. non-profits and international aid organizations, adopting these principles could enhance their credibility, improve community engagement, and lead to more effective program development. It challenges the conventional model of 'telling stories about beneficiaries' and instead promotes 'collaborating with storytellers,' which can fundamentally alter how public perception is shaped and how resources are allocated based on these narratives. The emphasis on slowing down the storytelling process to protect dignity also has significant implications for ethical reporting and donor relations, encouraging a move away from rushed, deliverable-driven content creation.
What's Next?
Organizations working with Sara Gómez are expected to implement internal storytelling capacities that move away from extractive practices towards collaborative models. This involves training staff to prioritize listening, build trust, and empower storytellers to have authority over their narratives. The adoption of participatory methods like Photovoice may become more widespread, allowing communities to document their own realities. Gómez's continued advocacy and teaching through her consulting practice and The Understory community will likely influence how non-profits and NGOs approach communication and engagement. There may be a growing trend towards organizations publicly sharing their own internal struggles and vulnerabilities, mirroring Gómez's personal approach, to build deeper connections with their audiences. This could lead to a broader re-evaluation of ethical guidelines for storytelling within the non-profit sector, potentially influencing funding criteria and reporting standards from donors who value authentic and dignified representation.
Beyond the Headlines
The deeper implications of Gómez's work extend to challenging the very foundation of power dynamics in global health and development. By insisting on shifting whose voices are centered, she is advocating for a more equitable world where those with lived experiences shape policy and narratives, rather than just those controlling funding or holding the camera. This approach has the potential to dismantle long-standing colonialist tendencies in international aid, where external entities often dictate the stories and solutions for local communities. Ethically, it calls for a profound re-examination of consent, representation, and the potential for harm in storytelling. Culturally, it promotes a shift from pity-based narratives to those that highlight resilience and agency, fostering empathy and understanding rather than othering. The long-term shift could lead to a more inclusive global dialogue, where diverse perspectives are genuinely valued and integrated into decision-making processes, ultimately fostering more sustainable and community-led solutions to global challenges.
