The first step to building an effective story bank is to develop an infrastructure that allows your organization to seamlessly collect stories, work with consumers, and coordinate story distribution. Based on our interviews, creating a system that is consistent with organizational strengths and overall goals might be the most challenging aspect of this work.

Devote Staff Resources

To establish and manage an effective story bank, it’s best to designate one primary coordinator, involve everyone in collection of stories, and hire new staff. While this approach is the most successful, for capacity and funding reasons, advocates also acknowledged it is impractical for many groups to implement it. That said, here are some options to consider as your organization thinks through how best to expand this important work.

Designate a coordinator

Advocates highlighted the importance of having one person coordinate collection efforts and circulation of stories for media and other related purposes. Not all organizations we spoke with have a coordinator or have the capacity to designate a coordinator, but Virginia Organizing found it invaluable to have their communications director, Julie Blust, devote a portion of her time to managing their story bank. Julie is able to streamline the
database, ensure that other staff members pitch in, and quickly follow up with story leads. Her expertise as communications director also puts her in a unique position to proactively place stories in media and monitor what types of stories would be most helpful in publicizing their message.

Get everyone involved

Campaign for Better Health Care (CBHC) in Illinois has mastered the art of team work. All staff members contribute to story collection. In particular, they all pitch in on their helpline. By sharing this responsibility, policy analysts and organizers alike increase story banking capacity and cultivate a work environment where stories are an organizational priority. If you do have multiple staff members talking to consumers, Nellie Price of Health Access California suggests tracking staff contacts with each consumer to help manage and foster strong relationships.

Hire new staff

If possible, consider hiring additional staff to expand your story banking capacity. If bringing on new, dedicated full-time or part-time staff isn’t an option, another option is to hire a temporary consultant, fellow, or intern. Tennessee Health Care Campaign recently hired intern Rachel Kelley. She spends the majority of her time reconnecting with consumers in their database and scheduling in-person meetings with new consumers identified through their helpline. Florida CHAIN has another model to consider in lieu of hiring a staff member: They hired a part-time consultant to work at a community health center as a navigator, identifying consumers willing to share their health care stories.

[Return to Top]

Train your staff

Whether you can hire new staff or you are simply asking existing staff to pitch in, it’s crucial to train them effectively. Talking with consumers is not something that comes naturally to everyone, and many advocates emphasized the need to train interns and temporary hires, in particular. Judi Hilman of the Utah Health Policy Project recommends that you first explain how story banking enhances overall advocacy work, provide a brief overview of the basics of health care in your state, and then instruct them on the best way to approach consumers. When possible, have new staff observe a seasoned story banker. Also, provide new staff with a series of questions to help guide their conversations as well as a list of key phrases that consumers might say that suggest they have a health care story to share.

Prioritize the work

To make story banking a priority, some advocates build story banking activities into their weekly work plans. For example, Stefanie Rubin of New Jersey Citizen Action devotes one day a week to collecting new stories, following up with consumers who have previously shared their story, or cleaning up the database. By designating a specific day, she ensures that the work gets done each week. Their up-to-date and robust database has made New Jersey Citizen Action able to quickly respond to media requests. Advocates we spoke to also found that managing other areas of their work was easier when they maintained an up-to-date database.

Integrate story collection into existing work

While it’s critically important to designate specific chunks of time for this work, advocates we spoke to emphasized the need to incorporate story banking throughout all areas of their work. To do so, advocates include requests for stories at community forums, coalition meetings, monthly conference calls, and anywhere health care consumers may be. Rachel Kelly of the Tennessee Health Care Campaign (THCC) attends in-person meetings that THCC’s social workers set up in order to identify consumers who may want to share their story. When Brian Rothgery of Citizen Action of Wisconsin meets with people in the community,
he actively listens for key phrases that indicate that a consumer has a compelling health care story. Asking open-ended questions and listening carefully can make finding good consumer stories easier than one might think.

Set goals

Breaking up long-term goals, like growing your story bank by 50 stories this year, into smaller goals is a great way to keep on track. Kathleen Gmeiner of the Universal Health Care Action Network of Ohio (UHCAN Ohio) says that setting monthly goals has been very useful to her work. Kathleen notes that each field staff at UHCAN Ohio aims to identify three new stories a month that reflect three different campaigns. Nevertheless, Kathleen also notes that many of
the best stories are found when a story is urgently needed and one staff member remains on the phone until the right story is found.

Add it to the database

Maintaining an up-to-date and well-organized database is not necessarily a glamorous job, yet it is an essential component to quality story banking. Groups can purchase software to organize their stories. Programs like E-Tapestry, Filemaker, Databank, Track Via, and Salsa allow groups to quickly search for consumer stories using status markers, such as “preexisting condition,” “uninsured,” or “Medicaid beneficiary,” as well as demographic markers. In the absence of specialized software, advocates can use Google Doc spreadsheets, which enable all staff, wherever they are, to quickly find and update stories in real time.

Keep track of what stories are placed

To prevent oversaturation of a particular consumer story, monitor when and where you share stories. By doing so, you can also ensure that you don’t overextend consumers, and you can keep track of what types of stories particular outlets are likely to run.

[Return to Top]