Storytelling Ambassadors

We all have a story to share.

The Storytelling Ambassadors will engage their neighbors, family and friends in conversation about their experience living in their Baltimore neighborhood.

We are looking for Ambassadors to amplify the voices of their own communities, particularly communities most impacted by disinvestment historically and today.

Ambassadors will be trained to facilitate these conversations using storytelling as a mechanism to generate ideas and tap into the collective wisdom of our communities.

There are two options to participate in this project:

Residents may sign up to lead as a Storytelling Ambassador via this link. Ambassadors must attend two trainings and host two storytelling spaces between June and the end of the year.
If you would like to simply share your story, sign up to participate here, and we will connect you to a storytelling space nearest to you.

Our Chief Storyteller.

Dr. David Fakunle is the co-founder and CEO of DiscoverME/RecoverME, an organization that utilizes the African oral tradition to encourages the claiming of one’s narrative for personal healing and growth.

. Additionally, David utilizes storytelling as a research methodology for acquiring qualitative data around human experiences with health and wellbeing.

A Baltimore native and current resident, David has been a professional storyteller for over 25 years and honed his craft under 'Maryland's Official Griot,' the late Mary Carter Smith.

In addition to public health research, David shares storytelling through his teaching at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine. David empowers his audiences to acknowledge and appreciate their natural storytelling abilities, while embracing the understanding, wisdom and transformative power that their lived experiences can exude.

Dr. Fakunle will train 50 Baltimore Storytelling Ambassadors. The training will cover story structure, narrative orientation, and the facilitation of conversation.

Ambassadors will develop their own storytelling technique and approach, and will be prepared to facilitate storytelling spaces in their community.

Through storytelling spaces, Ambassadors will offer their fellow Baltimore residents genuine opportunities to inform and guide the Our Baltimore, Comprehensive Plan, while tapping into their authentic wisdom and perspectives.