Digital storytelling gives communities and grassroots groups opportunities to share experiences and raise awareness to social change issues and ideas like never before. Open source, free, and accessible technologies have created unprecedented opportunities for communities to build networks and amplify voices of the under-heard.

The Bay Area Video Coalition and The Community Technology Foundation of California collaborated to create the Digital Storytelling Institute, which works with community-based organizations to develop social change digital storytelling programs. The Institute’s Web site provides several free resources on how to plan and produce a digital story. The downloadable PDFs include preproduction and production tips (steps to take, defining your audience, camera movements, interview tips), storyboard templates, other online storytelling and grant funding resources, and distribution opportunities.

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Recently, I spoke with Ian Kim, policy director for the Oakland-based Ella Baker Center about his organization’s aspirations of building opportunities for disadvantaged communities in the “new green economy.” With an affinity for creating memorable names like “Silence the Violence” and “Books not Bars,” I was immediately struck by the campaign called “Reclaim the Future” and its “Apollo Challenge.”

Simply put, they are urging supporters to sign on, challenging Oakland to create sustainable jobs and energy independence within 10 years, the same amount of time President Kennedy gave the nation for “landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” In 1969, Apollo 11 met the lunar challenge after 192 hours. In the Winter 2007 issue of Yes! Magazine, the Center’s executive director Van Jones and communications director Ben Wyskida wrote about their ideas for creating high quality jobs for Oakland residents while cleaning up the environment, improving public health and helping the region achieve energy independence through the promotion of alternative energy technologies.

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