When we met members of HSA at the NSN Conference in Rhode Island, it seemed clear that people were interested in talking to other members who shared interest in specific kinds of healing story work like bereavement, social action, work with teens, elders, etc. There is, within HSA, a wonderful diversity of interests and styles of storytelling. In response, the Board has passed a motion to encourage the formation of Discussion Focus Groups. We're excited about this because it supports our goal of facilitating communication and information exchange among our members. Any member who would like to bring together a Discussion Focus Group can put a notice with contact information in our newsletter or on the HealingStory website.

Caren Neile, one of our members, has already volunteered to form a Discussion Focus Group on Storytelling and Social Action. Her invitation follows this article. If you want to head up another Discussion Focus Group, the HSA Board welcomes you.

Let's have a contest! "Discussion Focus Group" is a very unwieldy name. "Focus Group" seemed to imply that a person could only "focus" on one field while many of us have more than one field of storytelling interest. NSN already had "Discussion Groups" and we didn't want to duplicate that. Come up with a graceful name and win a prize. Allison Cox has offered a copy of Jane Yolen's "Favorite Folktales From Around The World." Submit your entries to Allison at: Allison @wolfenet.com.

Healing doesn't begin and end with the individual; the community and the planet also benefit from the therapeutic power of story. What's more, many of the same tellers -- and the same stories -- satisfy both personal and political needs. For this reason, the Healing Story Alliance is supporting a discussion focus group for people interested in storytelling for social action.

The Social Action Discussion Focus Group will be a source of inspiration and information for tellers, teachers and researchers doing work in areas including storytelling for tolerance and diversity, peace-building, conflict transformation, social justice and the environment. I foresee listserv and other forms of conversation on stories, methodology, and other issues relating to these areas. In addition, HSA has invited us to contribute articles on these themes to its newsletter and journal. If you are a member of HSA, no additional fee is required to join.

I have offered to serve as coordinator for this group. I am a former Peace Corps volunteer who writes and teaches for a living. I am also a Ph.D. student in the Public Intellectuals Program (I didn't name it!) at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, doing a dissertation on storytelling for social action. And I am developing and teaching a storytelling class and series at my university this fall.

As part of my work, I have been helping the International Storytelling Center ("ISC") compile a database of tellers, resources and best practices related to storytelling for peace-building and conflict transformation. The information I compile will be made available to NSN, as well. I am also assisting the ISC to create training programs based, in part, on this material. I will be offering a presentation on storytelling for peace at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough in October and will inform those who attend about the formation of this discussion focus group.

I look forward to learning from and sharing with all of you. Together, we can save (or at least help repair) the world!

Please feel welcome to contact Caren Neile with any questions, comments or to join the Discussion Focus Group on Storytelling and Social Action.

Caren Neile
48 SW Ninth Terrace
Boca Raton, FL 33486
E-mail: carenina@bellsouth.net.
Phone: (561) 392-4780

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