Story is at the core of what we do at Change Consulting.
When I first started this agency 17 years ago, our primary area of service was media relations. As a former journalist, I believed in the power of the media and of story; I wanted to help racial and social justice leaders contest in the marketplace of ideas and reach their audiences through media coverage. Since we started, we have helped clients secure thousands of placements in media of all kinds – local, national, niche, mainstream, print, online and broadcast.
As the media landscape changed, so did our services. We added digital and content services to help clients tell their own stories better through their own channels. We added strategy, branding, and messaging services to help clients capture and amplify their core stories and learn more about the deeper narratives and frames that influence the change we are collectively trying to make in the world.
Now, we are at another inflection point. We find ourselves in an increasingly fragmented media environment, with declining trust in traditional institutions, the rise of AI-generated content, and the overwhelming challenge of breaking through digital noise. Social justice movements need not just visibility, but meaningful connection with audiences who can drive change. This moment calls for a more sophisticated, multi-layered approach to storytelling that goes beyond simply being heard to truly engaging to shift hearts, minds, and, ultimately, systems.
Narrative – the big story – remains essential. And I believe we also need three other things:
- Continue to contest in the existing marketplace of ideas by becoming even better at media relations across all existing media channels.
- Vastly expand our narrative infrastructure so we can own our own channels and medium of storytelling.
- Increase our own capacity for storytelling, becoming better storytellers and media practitioners.
In 2024, we launched the Change the Story initiative to explore ways we can help our clients beyond traditional media or communications services. We hosted an event featuring leading racial justice reporters to enhance communications smarts about how to pitch stories worth telling. We partnered with Maynard Institute on a first-of-its-kind event bringing together media leaders in the Bay Area with organizers to shift how community safety is covered.
Now, we are releasing our first-ever e-book on storytelling as a resource for organizations on the power of storytelling. Storytelling for Social Change – How to use stories to seed narratives, shape worldviews, and win justice is drawn from our 2024 five-part blog series. This guide is designed for changemakers, advocates, communicators, and organizations who want to deepen their understanding of storytelling as a tool for equity and justice. Grab your copy here.
What we’ve learned over these 17 years is that effective storytelling is both about crafting compelling narratives and about understanding the ecosystem in which those stories live and breathe. It’s about knowing when to push for mainstream media coverage and when to build our own platforms. It’s about recognizing that sometimes the most powerful stories come not from polished press releases but from authentic community voices.
Our work has taught us that the most effective storytelling:
- Centers the experiences and wisdom of communities most impacted by injustice
- Connects individual stories to broader systemic issues
- Challenges harmful dominant narratives by offering compelling counter-narratives
- Provides clear pathways to action and engagement
As we look to the future, we’re focusing on building storytelling capacity not just within our agency, but across the sector. This means:
- Training organizations to identify and develop their stories
- Creating resources like our new e-book to equip leaders
- Fostering partnerships between media makers and movement builders
- Experimenting with new technologies and platforms while staying true to our values
Our new e-book is just one step in our ongoing commitment to evolving how we approach storytelling for social change.
The challenges we face as a society are complex and deeply rooted. We believe that better stories, stories that illuminate injustice, inspire action, and imagine new possibilities, are a powerful tool to push back against injustice and build the world we want to see.
Together, let’s change the story.