We are at a moment in history in which a collective wellbeing approach—which centers community, connections and interdependencies—is more relevant than ever to inform how we organize our communities in ways that care for people and place. Narrative, arts and culture strategies to advance collective wellbeing are powerful but underutilized methods of supporting communities to bridge divisions and face challenges across issues to build a better future together.
As an initiative working to support the use of narrative, arts and culture to strengthen movements toward justice, IRIS has partnered with Wello, Big Bite Communications and Weaving Ways to begin the first phase of Collective Wellbeing in Action, a framework for advancing collective wellbeing as a catalytic approach to systems-level change in how our communities are imagined and transformed.
Illustration created by Andre Medina with inspiration from The Artist (1) by photographer Hervé Simon of artist Sêma Lao. Under license CC BY-SA 2.0.
Support for this project was provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.
We believe that by working with a cohort of partners already actively working on collective wellbeing—including a community-based organization, artist, scholar, and network advisor—we can create a community-centered and led process for designing and implementing local creative interventions that also build community trust, connection, and wellbeing. This prototype process is intended to be used by civil society organizations and communities across the US and thus activate a collective wellbeing approach starting locally and broadening into regional and national efforts.
Graphic by Andre Medina illustrating a narrative, arts and culture discussion on collective wellbeing facilitated by IRIS in August 2024.
Narrative Design Principles for Collective Wellbeing: Actionable guidelines for communities to align local action with embodied collective wellbeing
Creative Intervention Design: Design for implementation in Northeast Wisconsin during the next project phase that will also serve as an example for other communities
Curation Criteria & Process Guide: Guidance on convening and supporting community-based teams and pairing artists with community organizations
Participatory Learning Framework: A community-led learning model to measure success through a collective wellbeing lens
Story as Evidence: A creative, multi-media retrospective illustrating the link between creative activities and community outcomes to seed a new set of community projects
