Hope is a verb
When the daily news cycle is too awful and the state of the world’s biggest challenges too overwhelming, it helps me to remember that an enormous number of people are out there trying to make a difference. So many dedicated, thoughtful and skilled people all around the world choose to spend their time and energy tackling some of the world’s biggest challenges, like extreme poverty, environmental degradation, climate change, injustice of all kinds.
But sometimes that knowledge by itself isn’t enough, and I need to hear more stories about solutions.
It’s important not to stick my head in the sand and ignore the bad news, so I carry on reading the news and the reports and listening to the seminars. But these days I find myself trying to make the good stuff a bigger part of my news diet.
I know I’m not alone in wanting more good news. We all need to hear about solutions because they:
· Give us ideas for what we can do, through replicating and/or adapting someone else’s solution for our own situation
· Inspire completely new solutions
· Avert anxiety paralysis by showing us what’s possible
· Give us hope that change can be made
Hope is a verb, after all. Here are a few things I’ve been using to keep me moving too.
A relatively recent discovery for me was the Solutions Stories Tracker maintained by the Solutions Journalism Network. SJN is an initiative/organisation/resource/network aimed primarily at (you guessed it) journalists, and I can’t remember now which internet rabbit hole I fell down to find it. The Solutions Stories Tracker is a repository that combines reporting on serious issues with reporting on solution efforts, with stories from 89 countries (as of this writing). I particularly like the stories coming from the Africa Initiative, which supports “evidence-based reporting of African solutions on African soil”.
SJN also partnered with the Skoll Foundation to create the Solutions Insights Lab, which goes a little deeper into solutions stories by drawing out the evidence that a solution effort worked (or not), any insights that can be learned, and any limitations for success. Journalists are trained so well to find the real story, track the truth, and uncover the bad news. Having their attention turned towards solutions provides a different perspective for those of us who aren’t in journalism and a welcome relief from doom scrolling.
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Another source for stories is the Climate and Development Knowledge Network, a Global South-led programme that focuses on the most climate-affected people in the Global South. CDKN’s website holds a repository of news and features from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. While some of the articles focus on the myriad of climate-related challenges facing these communities, there are also plenty of solutions stories in the mix. Importantly, it’s refreshing that all the stories are written by and from the perspective of people in the Global South.
The Big Fix is a series of stories produced by The World (a public radio program based in the U.S. produced by PRX and GBH). It’s not specifically focused on international development, but by virtue of its coverage on climate change, there is certainly a lot of crossover material. Again, it’s a home for solutions stories (yes, self-evident from the name), discussing actions being taken by communities, governments, businesses and individuals.
In addition to hearing about new strategies and projects for tackling the world’s biggest challenges, I’ve also found myself increasingly looking for the smaller, human stories. Stories about the people behind the solutions — who they are, where they are, what they are doing, how they got started, how their work integrates into their community more broadly.
I’ve also been looking for stories without a big megaphone. Some of the best solutions stories come from individuals and communities that don’t create or have access to big media.
To that end, recently I tuned into a webinar hosted by Project Drawdown, an initiative focused on solutions to climate change. The presenter was Matt Scott, Director of Storytelling and Engagement, who spoke at length about Project Drawdown’s Neighborhood project: a series of short documentaries featuring stories of individuals working on climate solutions across the U.S. What makes this series different is its deliberate focus on passing the mic to people who aren’t normally front and center in the conversation about climate solutions.
Similar to the need for representation in all facets of media, Matt emphasised how we all need to see stories about people we can relate to and see ourselves in. “You can’t be what you can’t see,” as the saying goes. If everyone is needed to tackle our biggest challenges, then everyone needs to know they can play an important role.
Beyond individual inspiration, Matt noted how overlooking the stories of underrepresented communities isn’t just ethically wrong — it also means we all miss out on insights, inspiration, impact and solutions to learn from those communities.
One other aspect that I think is critical (and relates to an earlier post of mine about communications in development) is that solutions stories featuring underrepresented and historically overlooked communities help to change narratives and perspectives. People aren’t just victims of circumstance; they are active change agents in their own communities and beyond. Representative stories remind those of us in overrepresented communities that everyone, everywhere is able to build power for change.
While the Neighborhood project is currently U.S.-focused, in the coming months Project Drawdown will be launching the Global Solutions Diary, which Matt says will invite people from all over the world to share their own stories about climate action. I’m really looking forward to seeing what that looks like in practice.
I would dearly love to find more of these solution stories that come from individuals and communities who don’t have a big megaphone. Just like I found SJN through a random series of internet rabbit holes, and not from my own professional corner of the world, I would also love to see more cross-sectoral pollination of solutions stories.
How can we find more of these stories from communities that don’t yet have a megaphone? How can we support the creation of local storytelling in ways that are also accessible to the storytellers? Are there different ways to use different types of media that would enable more people to tell their stories?
I think we could all use more reminders that solutions come from everywhere.
