It’s a vibrant community where testimony is cultivated, creativity is nurtured, respectful discourse is fostered, and change is created one powerful, purposeful narrative at a time.
A narrative advocacy training at the Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy.
We are survivors, witnesses, writers, advocates, artists, and allies calling injustice by its name and calling the world to confront it.
Because we are here to be heard.
During our signature two-day writing workshop, participants read and discuss testimonial writing from across history, social movements, and genres; take part in a series of real-time writing exercises; and benefit from moderated, trauma-informed workshopping of their writing. We currently offer workshops for survivors of gender-based violence; immigrants and refugees; those impacted by economic injustice and income inequality; and those impacted by racial injustice, particularly within the criminal justice system. We run workshops for both adults and youth.
Our Center for Story & Witness Narrative Advocacy Training Program was created to help allies, advocates, and activists, working on a wide range of social justice issues, think in new ways about the power, purpose, and ethics of storytelling; to consider how language and word choice can help us break through ideological or partisan barriers; and to consider which stories they seek to tell in their work.
We partner with world-class artists, writers, and content creators who are as passionate about human rights as they are about artistic excellence. Together, we bring the stories developed through our writing workshops to life in powerful, provocative, change-creating ways.
Through our year-long Teacher Training Institute & Fellows Program, we’re developing a new generation of testimonial writing workshop instructors and facilitators. Our end goal? Cultivating leaders deeply connected to the communities we work with, so as to expand our Center for Story & Witness programming at the grassroots level.
We’ve worked on four continents, in 12 countries, and over 40 U.S. states.
COLLABORATIVE
Brought our programs and lectures to over 250 grassroots organizations.
Trained over 26,000 activists through our narrative advocacy trainings.
Graduated over 1,300 writers from our testimonial writing program.
Helped change state and federal law through our coalition-driven, story-focused advocacy efforts.
We know from history and social justice movements that stories are among our most powerful tools for creating social change. But how does the act of sharing the truths we’ve lived or witnessed alter the person doing the truth-telling?...
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Sandra Cisneros, the acclaimed poet, short story writer, novelist, and essayist, has been selected to receive the 2025 Harold Washington Literary Award. This prestigious award, named for Chicago’s first Black mayor, will be presented by Chicago’s Near South Planning...
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Developed to help those who have lived through or witnessed gender-based violence or other human rights violations use their voices, faces, and stories to call the public to greater compassion and — more importantly — social action, our Center for...
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Today, more than ever, the voices of those most impacted by social injustice need to be heard. But how do we confront those who seek to “disappear” stories that speak truth to power? And how can we use our own...
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Apply today for The Stories We Tell, Center for Story & Witness’s award-winning testimonial writing program for those who have lived through or witnessed gender-based violence. During this immersive, two-day testimonial writing workshop, a cohort of survivors, witnesses, writers,...
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Center for Story & Witness is excited to announce The Power to Change, a groundbreaking storytelling and narrative advocacy initiative taking place in Marrakech, Morocco on July 26 & 27, 2025. This project, developed in partnership with IREX and the...
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