NewStories spent six years working with people in communities across Japan after the triple disasters of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear explosions on March 11, 2011. Our work began simply with listening, bearing witness, standing with. Our listening led to convenings, bringing people in different communities together with each other and bringing people from different communities facing similar challenges together. Always invited in by local partners, we codesigned and facilitated sessions for people to grieve, reflect, dream, and plan, Re-Storying their lives and their hopes in a way that allowed them to organize for new action. Bob Stilger, co-director of NewStories wrote AfterNow: When We Cannot See the Future, Where Do We Begin? to share the learnings, lessons and methods from these years.
Read more about NewStories’ four decades of work in Japan here.