The Brimstone Award for Applied Storytelling supports a model storytelling project that is service-oriented, based in a community or organization, and to some extent replicable in other places and situations. We are confident that the four projects above will inspire excellence in applied storytelling work and communicate to new audiences the humanitarian possibilities of storytelling.
Caren Neile
The Public Storyteller Presents: “Coming Home/Listening to Our Troops”; Project Director: Caren Neile, in collaboration with VFW Stone of Hope Center in Hollywood, Florida, WXEL-TV studios in Boynton Beach, FL, and WLRN radio/internet in Miami, FL
South Florida has over 650,000 veterans. Approximately fifteen percent fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, a population with a rate of suicide higher than their rate of battlefield mortalities. Many others are homeless or unemployed. This innovative storytelling skill-building program enhances veterans’ skills and opportunities with which to both re-integrate into society and raise public awareness of their needs on a large scale through broader media outreach.