Digital Storytelling for Environmental and Climate Justice

Stories can inspire action and advance narrative change for environmental and climate justice. Discover how digital storytelling can amplify the voices of those directly impacted and build your own skills in this interactive webinar with Switzer Fellow Catalina Garzón-Galvis and StoryCenter’s Andrea Spagat.

Digital storytelling is a participatory media approach that centers the agency of the storyteller in creating short 2 to 3 minute videos based on first-person narratives. This webinar will introduce key principles of digital storytelling and elements of emotionally compelling stories that can amplify the voices of those directly impacted by environmental and climate disparities.

Facilitators will share examples from several digital storytelling projects with community-based organizations to illuminate how digital stories can inspire action and advance narrative change for environmental and climate justice. Participants will also build their storytelling skills by engaging in a writing activity to reflect on a transformative moment in their own lives.

Switzer Fellows, colleagues and other connections are welcome to join this online event!

People share their stories in a StoryCenter event. Photo courtesy of Catalina-Garzon Galvis.

Presenters:

Catalina Garzón-Galvis

Catalina is a 2005 Switzer Fellow and 2025 Switzer Leadership Grantee currently coordinating the Resilient Roots Project, a youth digital storytelling collaboration with Frontline Catalysts and StoryCenter. She brings over twenty years of experience with participatory research, education and media partnerships that center the lived experiences and thought leadership of environmental justice communities. Her past digital storytelling work includes planning and co-facilitating digital storytelling workshops with Mixteco Indígena Community Organizing Project, Líderes Campesinas and StoryCenter to develop short videos and digital media that elevate the diversity of languages and voices of Indigenous and women farmworker leaders affected by heat-related illness and exposure to wildfire smoke. Catalina is a recipient of the 2010 Yamashita “Foundations for Change” Prize which honors scholar-activists whose work bridges academia and community.

Andrea Spagat

Andrea is Director of Programs at StoryCenter, a participatory media organization based in Berkeley CA, and a collaborator on the Resilient Roots Project with Frontline Catalysts. Before joining StoryCenter in 2006, Andrea worked for 12 years as an educator in a variety of settings, including a J*il GED project in Wisconsin, a training program for rural school teachers in Bolivia, and a substance abuse prevention initiative for youth in San Francisco. Andrea’s digital storytelling work is varied – she has worked on public health projects that have included stories with HIV-impacted communities and workshops with farmworker leaders impacted by wildfires and extreme heat. In addition, she leads bilingual (English-Spanish) workshops.

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Header photo by Brett Jordan / Unsplash

Host or Publisher Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation