S6E141: The Story Catchers - Capturing & Analysing stories with Susan Rooney-Harding

In this episode, Val caught up with a passionate and dedicated storyteller. The value of stories on projects is immense. As data and technology service the digital position, we still require the breadth, depth and understanding of storytellers, managers and people on the ground to explain and narrate the changes and forces that deliver projects that matter. 

Susan is a documentary filmmaker and a creative qualitative data specialist. Her inquisitive and intuitive nature is central to her ability to capture meaningful stories for a greater purpose.

Susan is the founder of The Story Catchers - Stories for Purpose.

Together with Nerissa Walton Story Cathers Evaluation Specialist, we co-created a methodology that uses film and community participatory approaches in monitoring, evaluation, and social impact measurement.

Film presents evidence in a way that a written story cannot do. Our methodology supports communities to tell and share their stories. This helps to eliminate situations where project staff tell their versions on behalf of communities. Numbers aren’t enough to fully understand community conditions of well-being, or quantitatively assess certain aspects of well-being. For example, in measuring human emotion and perception; we need stories to do this!

Our methodology enhances the individual and collective voice, including the silent and unheard voices that are often sidelined. The methodology empowers communities to actively co-create and evaluate their own projects and programs. We have been using our methodology for close to a decade and we have refined our processes. We know it is an effective tool in the evaluation and reporting process.

Using our methodology for evaluation and impact measurement can help create positive systemic, sustainable change in the organisation and communities that we work with.

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