Workshop Collaborator - Fall 2023
Scope of Work
Who is Young Storytellers?
Young Storytellers sparks creative self-discovery through storytelling. Our programs highlight young people as the center of their own narratives, emphasize that their stories matter, and celebrate their unique voices as the ones telling them. Young Storytellers works towards a future where young people experience the impact that their thoughts, feelings, and words can have on the world in which they live.
Young Storytellers works with students in elementary, middle, and high school. In elementary school, students write scripts individually or in pairs with a mentor; in middle school, students write stories about challenges that they face; and in high school, students explore how various communities are portrayed in the media and craft stories that they feel represent their self-identified communities. Students in each program work with volunteer mentors, and every student gets to see their work performed by professional actors. Young Storytellers programs are designed around Common Core standards, integrate Social and Emotional Learning activities, and include components of Learning for Justice’s Social Justice Standards.
What Is The Project?
Young Storytellers is expanding the learning opportunities available for our communities. We aim to develop more workshops to better equip our volunteers to work in the classroom with our students while integrating our values and living out our Worldview. We are looking for professionals in the fields of arts, education, social work, psychology, leadership, and social change to help us create workshops that will give our volunteers the training and skills they need to facilitate our programs and be part of a socially conscious volunteer pool.
We are hoping to deliver a workshop at our bi-annual Head Mentor Training (for our ‘teaching artists’ who facilitate the programs in the classrooms) during the start of our Fall and Spring Semesters (in late August and early February). Workshop topics that have been covered include: coaching and feedback models, teaching students to avoid stereotypes in writing, core competencies in social emotional learning, behavioral and small group management for the classroom, anti-racism, social justice standards, and more.
Workshop topics we’d like to explore further include (but are not limited to): classroom management, the impact of personal narrative, equitable leadership skills, intentional storytelling, enhancing student voice, incorporating student diversity and multiculturalism. Our goal is that our Head mentors walk away from the workshop with tangible skills, strategies, and tools that they can apply in their classrooms.
Process
We envision that Workshop Collaborators will work with our team to create and facilitate an educational, engaging, and interactive workshop for volunteers. The workshop will align with and progress the core Young Storytellers values of belonging, connection, exploration, play, and equity. Workshop Collaborators will focus on communicating to our volunteers key skills, knowledge, and strategies to benefit the student experience while also engaging the volunteers in expanding their perspective and building new habits. We have a majority-white volunteer community which serves a predominantly-BIPOC student population, so this project is grounded by principles of equity, including, but not limited to antiracism, DEIB, feminism, disability rights, etc.
Anticipated Outcome & Deliverables
The end goal of this project is a 60-90-minute long in-person interactive workshop that can be shortened to 45-60 minutes over Zoom. The creation of this will be overseen by the YS team and the Workshop will be led by the Workshop Collaborator for Head Mentors, progressing our goal of integrating our values into everything Young Storytellers does. Identifiable objectives and takeaways from this workshop are dependent on the workshop topic and format, but possibilities include an action plan, classroom and program strategies, personal strategies, and/or applicable language to use. YS Team members will oversee the Workshop Collaborator to develop an outline, brainstorm activities, and create presentation / facilitation materials.
YS Head Mentor Team
The Workshop Collaborators will work primarily with the Head Mentor Strategist, though they may bring in other team members as helpful and necessary. The Head Mentor Strategist will be the main point of contact as the process progresses.
Timeline
The training that these workshops will be presented at takes place in late August or early September, then again in early February. We aim to give Workshop Collaborators approximately 2 months after selection. There will be at least three check-ins of work, which will take place online. Check ins will be flexible dependant on need and working relationship, but here is a sample format for the Fall / Spring Workshop:
Check-in 1 – Early June / November: Review proposal, talk through expectations and support needed, give context about the event and community
Check-in 2 – Early-July / December: Outline due, discuss any revisions
Check-in 3 – Early-August / January: Final outline and materials due, final feedback given from YS, slight changes / branding may be needed
Event – late August / January: materials finished, workshop executed both in person and virtually
Compensation
Young Storytellers is committed to paying our collaborators and partners for their time, energy, and outcomes. A typical collaboration as outlined above ranges between $500-$1000 and is ultimately dependent on experience, breakdown of responsibilities, participation in the planning process and presentation itself, and workshop outcomes. Payment is agreed upon early in the planning process and an invoice is submitted by the Workshop Collaborator after delivering the workshop.
Anything Else I Should Know?
Belonging is a core value of the Young Storytellers culture, and our daily practices around equity, diversity, inclusion, anti-bias, anti-discrimination, and antiracism are central to that value. At Young Storytellers we firmly believe that Black Lives Matter. We encourage women and gender diverse people, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ individuals, veterans, immigrants, and anyone with a disability to apply for this and all our positions. Young Storytellers has designed our interview, onboarding, and ongoing cultural practices to be a welcoming space for everyone. You can read more about our worldview on our website.
To submit a workshop proposal:
Please fill out this google form by April 30th for consideration for the fall cycle. Feel free to use this Workshop Proposal Template (make a copy) to prepare your answers.