Certificate Training in Community Storytelling

The Certificate in Community Storytelling provides practical tools that draw individuals and communities together in meaningful and healing ways.

Shannon Savage-Howie, 2019 participant

Transformational Storytelling

Personal storytelling is one of the most intimate forms of communication. Telling our story in community has the potential to bridge divides, cultivate trust, and inspire action by inviting those gathered to better understand what others have lived, suffered, and overcome. All human divisions could be healed if we would only take the time to listen to one another’s stories.

The Hearth offers an intensive certification program in community storytelling for those interested in the transformational power of stories. The Certificate in Community Storytelling offers a variety of experiential exercises, individual skill-building, practical teaching, online discussion groups, and written and online resources. Individuals who complete the certification course will:

  • Understand how stories function in our personal and public lives.
  • Learn how to create transformative events that deepen relationships within a local community or organization.
  • Explore narrative practices that promote individual growth, social awareness, and community action.
  • Learn how to create a variety of public story-sharing platforms that engender trust and vulnerability.
  • Gain concrete skills for community storytelling including story recruitment, event promotion, audience building, public participation, media integration, and fundraising.
  • Learn how to craft personal stories for speaking, teaching, and facilitation.
  • Increase skills for coaching groups and individuals in personal storytelling.
  • Discover methods for amplifying the voice of marginalized populations.
  • Learn how to apply storytelling techniques within personal, professional, and community settings.
Whether you do this course for personal or professional reasons, it will give you hope for humanity
Khaliqa Baqi, 2019 participant
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Want to hear from our graduates? Visit our Youtube Channel or our blog!

“In a time of increased polarization, it is storytelling that can connect us.”

– Mark Yaconelli

Upcoming Trainings:

Get $200 off tuition when you register for the 6-month Certificate Training before December 29th!

2024 Certificate in Community Storytelling

Apr 21, 2024 @ 5:00 pm - Apr 26, 2024 @ 11:00 am PDT

How To Register

The Hearth is offering one three and a half day intensive in Community Storytelling in November 2023 and one 6-month Certificate in Community Storytelling in 2024.
Continue below to visit our events page and register.
Additional Information
BIPOC Scholarship Information

The Hearth has created a funding initiative to address racial disparities and work towards a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive society. Community builders who identify as Black, Indigenous, Latinx, or People of Color will now be eligible for partial or full tuition scholarships to attend any Hearth online training or certification program.

Contact Operations Director Susannah Cole at susannah@thehearthcommunity.com for more information or simply indicate your interest for the scholarship in the comment box when you register for a Hearth training.

The Hearth offers in-person and online Certificate in Community Storytelling trainings for those interested in learning and applying the transformational power of stories in personal and professional settings. These specialized certification programs will assist community and organizational leaders in learning a variety of skills, techniques, and processes for producing community storytelling programs and using story as a practice to heal, strengthen, and enrich relationships.

What is The Hearth?

The Hearth is a nonprofit organization that uses transformational storytelling to help communities and organizations deepen trust, celebrate individual courage, address social problems, and strengthen group identity and purpose.