Strategic Storytelling Consulting
Most organizations know that AUTHENTIC STORIES MATTER. Fewer know how to design the conditions that make them possible.
Building Agency Capacity to EMPOWER Youth Storytelling
TRAINING STAFF in youth development, media literacy, psychoeducational strategies, and trauma-informed practices is crucial for fostering stronger engagement with young people. By building expertise in these areas, staff are better equipped to support youth in telling their stories effectively and authentically.
DEVELOPING INTERNAL SKILLS for ethical and participatory storytelling allows organizations to create meaningful opportunities for youth to share their experiences. When paired with filming, these efforts result in authentic and impactful content that reflects the voices and perspectives of young people.
Organizations often struggle with:
Wanting authentic youth stories, but not knowing how to thoughtfully evoke and capture them.
Interviews that feel flat, performative, or overly polished.
Staff who care deeply, but lack training in trauma-informed or participatory approaches.
Production partners who understand cameras, but not people.
Stories that technically “work,” but fail to connect or inspire action
Our consulting addresses those gaps — before the camera ever turns on.
What we actually change
Participants stop performing and start remembering
Interviews produce moments, not summaries
Production captures meaning instead of searching for it
Stories become usable across outreach, fundraising, and education
Depending on your needs, this work may include:
Designing trauma-informed interview frameworks
Developing ethical storytelling guidelines and practices
Training staff and facilitators on participatory media approaches
Advising on story strategy for campaigns, fundraising, or internal culture
Helping organizations align narrative, mission, and audience
Supporting production teams by shaping the human side of the process
At the core of this is a simple belief:
The goal isn’t better stories.
It’s better systems for telling them.
This work is particularly well suited to:
Youth-serving nonprofits.
Mentorship and scholarship programs.
Education and leadership development organizations.
Foundations and funders supporting youth voice.
Teams seeking thoughtful, systems-aware approaches to storytelling.
This is often the first way organizations engage our work, and can stand alone or serve as a foundation for deeper creative collaboration.
Meaningful stories don’t come from extraction — they come from relationship, care, and design.
Our role is to help organizations slow down, listen more carefully, and build storytelling practices that honor the people they serve while improving ways to meet institutional goals.
“Kenny makes the work appear effortless in spite of the sometimes hard to engage populations with which he works.”