Task Forces: Life Stories
The Representatives
Volunteer community members including personal historians, a storyteller and an artist.
The Focus
To implement and evaluate community storytelling models that demonstrate enhance quality of life for dying persons and their families.
The Result
- Everyone Has a Story, Share Yours!, a special storytelling tabloid distributed via the local newspaper.
- Life Story Circles were used to encourage and enhance storytelling skills in our community.
- Research was conducted to determine the effect of storytelling circles on quality of life for senior housing residents and participants at senior nutrition sites.
- A project was designed, The Places We've Been, The People We Are: Life Stories of the Dying in Missoula, Montana, a story gathering exercise undertaken among individuals who are dying in order to provide a positive experience and enhance the quality of life for the dying person.
- Gathering Life Stories of the Dying, a short set of guidelines.
- StoryKeepers, (www.mystorykeepers.org) a community nonprofit organization, was established and has assumed the mission and responsibilities of the Life Stories Task Force.