Who tells the story of our future?

To our creative changemakers, freedom fighters, resisters, and grassroots leaders

We glimpse the future daily, the one marked by the joy, creativity, and love that is the best of humanity. We yearn for democracy, accountability, and justice. We know in our hearts, that another world is possible.

The Scarcity Myth

But our struggles for justice and liberation are plagued by scarcity — the actual scarcity of resources due to the abyss of wealth inequality, as well as the scarcity embedded in the story that this is as good as it gets, that there isn’t enough to go around. Our communities are displaced, defunded and ignored. Every day we are forced to choose between the frying pan and the fire, too-often stuck fighting the bad instead of building the good. And in climate chaos, the scale of the horror has revealed itself — the ultimate manifestation of inequality, oppression, greed and the corrupting impact of concentrated power. 

We are Abundant

As we seek community power and individual liberation, we must support each other in leaning into the actual abundance of our world. We have so much to work with — our resilience and calm, our rage and passion, and so much deep experience and wisdom. 

Our wisdom is enough, but we need new skills and culture to share power, and weave our stories of justice and liberation together. Our communities know our histories and are intimately familiar with how power shows up in our lives. But we need practice at co-creating our visions and futures. And we need tools and culture that is accessible to everyone — so that analysis and strategy can be democratic practices. 

Center for Story-based Strategy offers story as the starting point, a universal approach to understanding how our words and actions can interact with and challenge the narrative threads that preserve power-over and oppression in the world.