The Institute for Family (IFF) is partnering with StoryCorps Studios to learn directly from North Carolina Families what they need to be happy, healthy, safe, and thriving in today’s world. Together, we’re recording honest and authentic conversations between the community’s practitioners, advocates, and families. You’re invited to share your perspective!
RECORD WITH STORYCORPS
StoryCorps is a national nonprofit that helps everyday Americans record, preserve, and share their stories. Since 2003, StoryCorps has given over half a million Americans the chance to record interviews about their lives. The organization preserves the recordings in its archive at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.
If you care about the state of family well-being in North Carolina, we invite you to choose someone you care about and interview each other.
Ask and answer questions like:
What does “family” mean to you?
What does it mean to be safe and secure?
Who in your life has been there to support you during challenging times?
What advice would you give someone experiencing some of the same things you have?
There’s no “right” or “wrong” way to have a StoryCorps conversation, and you can use the free StoryCorps Connect online platform to record in the comfort of your own home. All you need is a strong internet connection, access to a laptop or desktop computer with a microphone, and an open heart.
Anyone who cares about the state of North Carolina’s families is invited to add their story! The goal is to create an archive that represents our community as much as possible. Your stories, and the stories of your loved ones, are an important piece.
Consider inviting someone you’d want to honor by sharing this experience with them – a family member, a friend, a mentor, someone who has supported your journey etc.
StoryCorps conversations are meant to be spontaneous, authentic, and unscripted. We’ve developed a list of great questions to inspire your conversation, but ultimately what you talk about during your recording is entirely up to you. Follow your curiosity, and use this as an opportunity to ask the questions you’ve always wanted to ask, or document special stories you want to preserve.
When you complete your interview, it will automatically be saved in the StoryCorps archive as part of the Institute for Family Collection. You’ll have the ability to control the privacy settings for your interview in the archive – with the option to either make your interview public, or to make it accessible only to other StoryCorps online archive users. (You can also delete recordings, and record new interviews, if you need to.) You can adjust your privacy settings at any time.
It will not be used for any commercial or advertising purposes. Pending your approval, stories may be used as part of data visualization, on Institute for Family webpages, or in Institute for Family trainings. We’re excited to share these projects as they come together!
Why should i participate?
Recording with StoryCorps is an opportunity to:
Honor someone you care about.
Take time to talk about the things that matter most with someone who has played an important role in your life.
Build understanding.
Your recording will help policy makers, researchers, & the general public understand the variety of lived experiences of North Carolina families.
“The storytelling experience with StoryCorp is an exciting opportunity to learn about the experiences of families in North Carolina to advocate for their needs in their voice, in their language, and in their experience. The fact that these stories will be archived forever in the Library of Congress is an honor and allows our posterity to be able to learn from their ancestors.”
Tori Brasher-Weathers, Education Manager for Institute for Family, Children’s Home Society of North Carolina
