The Storytellers Page: How Stories Work in Prevention

Reviewed By: Julie Dykes

REVIEW

The Storytellers Page: How Stories Work in Prevention http://www.wheelcouncil.org/storytellers.html

Storytellers are urged to use stories to help young people form healthy values and thus prepare them for facing adversity. Just as the characters in the stories face challenges and overcome them, the young can draw on the same resources of courage, love, and peer support to withstand abuse, exclusion, peer pressure, and social conflict. Adult mentors and the creation of a peer group for support are also important factors in prevention. The problem solving and social skills can also be imparted through storytelling. The most effective programs provide ways for the young people's experiences to be transformed into stories. This theory of prevention is based on Joseph Campbell's studies of the hero-heroine stories that follow a pattern of separation, initiation, and return. There is a call to adventure, a challenge during which the hero may have "helpers" to advise him, and a return to the community bringing back knowledge which can be shared. It is hoped that the program can steer teenagers toward "tests" which lead to strength instead of destruction or addiction.

The website provides information on telling stories, choosing stories, local programs, and volunteering. The corporate headquarters and contact information is listed, as well as a storytelling book-shop page (part of the profits return to the organization).

The site is the product of the Wheel Council, Inc., a non-profit organization supported by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP), and several community foundations. The program operates in the western region of the U.S. and has been adopted into the Girl Scouts program as a means of enhancing self-image and preventing abuse, drug addiction, teen pregnancy, and susceptibility to gang and peer pressure. The website was first published in 1997 and the last copyright date is 1999, but the Girl Scouts programs mention it in June of 2002 and contributions are still being made by different organizations, so the program is still a going concern.