Lis'nTell training
Louise Coigley visited Christchurch at the beginning of March to share her unique Lis’n Tell: Live Inclusive Storytelling approach, developed alongside young people and families from over 20 years work as a speech and language therapist and storyteller. In two action-packed days, Louise shared her innovative appoach with a wide variety of practitioners working in the fields of youth development, education, speech and language therapy, health care and the performing arts. Participants learned through practising the simple yet powerful principles and techniques for developing communication, social skills and knowledge. Louise inspired through her anecdotal stories and offered coaching with sensitivity and warm encouragement. Everyone was buzzing by the end, excited to take these ways of working back to their communities and asking how they can sign up to the next level of training!
South Library workshop
In addition to the official Lis'nTell training, Louise offered a short workshop through Christchurch City Council Libraries (see picture below). The workshop was lively and entertaining, focussing on the importance of repetition, rhyme, role, ritual and rhythm in storytelling, particularly for children and those with special needs.
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Louise shared her experiences of working with young people and the amazing power of the story to engage even the most reluctant learners. "I came away with several new stories in my head and lots of ideas for new ways to work with young people," says local writer, Melanie Dixon.
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Workshop for young people with disabilities
The Story Collective collaborated with The Cube and Imagine Better to offer a Lis'nTell workshop to young people with disabilities. In the expert hands of Louise, a delightful group of young people discovered more about themselves, expressed their creativity in various ways, practised making decisions, and explored their leadership capacities through their co-creation of a story based on a Chinese folk tale about a dragon painter and a village afraid of a mountain. They created an enchanting tale that took the bones of the story into new uncharted territory. As always with storytelling, the learning went in both directions: Louise says that she now views this story from a completely new perspective thanks to the imagination of the young people that day. The participants finished the day requesting more opportunities like this.
All in all Louise Coigley's visit was a great success and left us all inspired. We look forward to more collaborations in the future. You can find out more about Louise and the Lis'nTell approach on the Lis'nTell website and Facebook page.
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