ECCAY RESOURCES

The ECCAY resources can help professionals to use in practice the solution focused knowledge they have just acquired.

Exercise nr. 33

Simon´s Story Cards

Minimum number of participants	Average time length	Individual setting	Group setting	Special Equipment	Unit	Online	Challenges/ competition
1	1 hour	yes	yes	no	2,4	yes	no

Story cards are question cards for individuals, pairs or small groups to help reflect on past and future. What is motivating and leads to action?

Story cards help individuals, pairs or small groups to reflect on the recent past and find a focus or purpose for the near future.

They can help clients/users who can find it difficult to describe the issues they are dealing with. The use of projective cards is a way to help them share their feelings, thoughts and ideas and then examine them in a safe, metaphorical context. A context which also encourages them to be creative and think in a more flexible manner on the way they feel about or perceive an issue or problem and deal with it.

The cards are used to elicit the feelings, thoughts, relationships and events that clients/users experience in their everyday life, by analysing, reflecting and expressing the thoughts and relationships of the (invented) characters of the story cards, and their imaginary situations or activities. This blending in of the imagined stories developed in the story cards with the real life ones can create meaningful narrative.

There are many variations of story cards and many “ready-to-use” story cards prepared, but for the purpose of this exercise we will use “Simon´s story cards”, a method developed by Amsterdam storyteller and story-worker Simon Hodges. It helps individuals to reflect on the recent past (last year) and find a focus on the future (the coming year).

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Aim / Benefits

The questions help to think first in general and then in more specific terms about what the year has meant. With this meaning, one can reflect on which parts of the year have really served his/her story, and which one would have preferred to leave behind. In this way, one can refine and reshape the ongoing story in terms of what is really motivating and leading to action.

UNIT(s) related

This exercise is related to Unit 2, Narrative Inquiry, as it can be used to make the participant reflect on what has happened and what kind of change they want to make. It can be used as a preparation for or as part of the narrative inquiry related activities.
In the sense that it has a future or forward looking aspect by focussing on actions to resolve an issue, challenge or problem, and as indicated it can also be used by small groups. As such it can be considered related to Unit 4.

How to do the exercise

Step 1 / Preparation:

(MANDATORY to explain how to prepare and introduce the exercise to the participant)
The professional prepares the template for the exercise, as the one given in the example .
Together, the cards make up a complete clock face.

Step 2

The professional asks the participant to start in the top right, and answer the question included in the upper right corner.
This question focuses on finding out the issues, topics, problems or challenges faced by the participant in the past year. The exact wording of the question is up to the professional, and be left as open as in the example provided, or guide the attention of the participant to a specific aspect for which the activity has been set up, e.g. the overriding theme or challenge in the personal sphere, or related to the family context.

Step 3
The participant, working clockwise, then moves to the next card, which asks the participant about a specific act, situation or moment that stood out in the past year.

Step 4
Following the clockwise approach the participants are then asked to reflect on what they would like to create or accomplish in the upcoming year.

Step 5
The last card focuses on the action that the participant wants to focus on to make the creation a reality or to accomplish the objective set out. The professional should ask the participant to focus on one single action, instead of listening to numerous small actions.

Final step / Conclusion
(MANDATORY to explain what to do in order to conclude the exercise)

After the participant has worked his/her way round clockwise and has approached each card on its own terms, the professional analyses the cards together with the participant. No analysis on the answers should be done when filling the cards, as the aim is to evaluate and analyse the whole picture.

The questions to be answered now can be:
When everything is put together, what new insights do you come to
Let the participant share his/her insights and look for similarities and new stories that may emerge.

Debrief

After the exercise the professional works with the participants to elaborate and plan a concrete action plan to actually implement the change to be accomplished and the action identified in the top left card. The professional´s role is to facilitate the elaboration of this plan by the individual participant, and if needed challenge some of the assumptions and/or intermediate actions or goals. This can be done by asking questions such as:

· How applicable are these actions?

· Do you think these goals are achievable?

· What is the very first goal you want to achieve?

· What is the very first step you could do to move towards this goal?

Specific materials

Large paper (A3) as template for the story cards.

Tips and Tricks

●       Leave sufficient time to reflect upon the questions, at least 5 mins. per card (if done in a single session).
●       Each card should be approached on its own accord, and no reflections or analysis should be made until the end of the exercise.
●       The cards can be used in one single session, or the participant can be asked to provide the answer to one of the cards and then asked to come back to it the next day/session and see if they want to make changes.
●       Although designed for individual use, the cards can also be used in small group settings and ask the group to reflect together. In this case please allow for more time for the exercise.
●       If you want the participant to focus on a particular aspect, make sure the first question in the top right card guides the participant to it.

On-line version

The exercise can easily adapted to be practised on-line, through the use of video-conferencing tools. The participant could also be sent each card via email and then provided with instructions. The professional recollects the card before sending out the next one.

Bibliography - Sitography

RAISING STRONG AND RESILIENT COMMUNITIES: A Narrative and Story Approach to Empower Cooperation,
Cohesion and Change in Communities through Non-Formal Education. Various Authors. https://storybag.nl/assets/rsrc-handbook_clickable.pdf

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