We help communities find their stories and we can help you find your story, too.
Our clients are thought leaders with the courage and foresight to take a deep look at who they are in order to create the future they want to see.
Who we can help:
- Communities continuing the journey. You want to get in touch with what your story is. You need to document elders’ stories — before it’s too late.
- Organizations desiring to get on the map. You are no longer content to fly below the radar.
- Legacy-sharers, sense-makers, and documentarians. You need a thought partner with insight, empathy, and project management abilities.
We can help in person — or check out Jennifer’s book on how to find your community story:
Available on Amazon!
About ‘Belonging to Bethlehem‘
In 2010, we began gathering the pieces of the story of the Jewish community of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Where were these pieces? With many different people of the community, and their friends and neighbors! In newspaper clippings, vintage photos, and telephone directories. Even in the architecture! All we had to do was look, and listen.
We listened to people telling their life stories and in those stories we found the “quilt blocks” of one community’s story. It took us 15 years but it doesn’t have to take you that long to find and document your story! “Six-Word Lessons for Writing Your Community’s Story” shortcuts all that.
The result of our Bethlehem research is a full length manuscript with the working title: “Belonging to Bethlehem: The Jewish Community of the Christmas City, 100 Years of Stories.” Besides telling a good story, this narrative highlights the nature of belonging: that everyone needs a sense of belonging, that sometimes we move toward belonging, and sometimes away. Belonging is a process, not a destination!
This community is only a tiny part of Bethlehem, and offers one lens of many onto what makes Bethlehem special. Bethlehem is a historic city that includes many ethnicities, religions, churches, workplaces, clubs, schools, and traditions.
Are you a community within Bethlehem, Pennsylvania that would like to find, understand, document and/or share your own “Belonging to Bethlehem” story? Write to us at jennifer@jenniferlader.com with the subject line “Belonging to Bethlehem.”
If you’re outside of Bethlehem, see our “All of US” pilot program, below.
Is this anything like your story?
You’re a community, neighborhood, extended family, veterans group, or other collection of people with a common bond. You’ve been around for a while! Some of the longest-timers are getting older … or are no longer with us. Some people still remember the stories, though, of how it all started. It’s time to gather the stories, write them down, film them, or otherwise preserve the past. More than that — you need to be able to talk about who you are and why that matters.
Knowing Your Story Helps Navigate Now & Lights the Way to the Future
One of the things we’ve witnessed when communities start to listen to and learn their own people’s stories is that you feel good about who you are. You remember what’s special about your group. You start to be able to talk about who you are and what you contribute in society. Somehow the future gets a little clearer, a little brighter looking …
Our clients are leaders with the courage and foresight to take a deep look at who they are in order to create the future they want to see.
Change is part of every community’s path
There are a lot of stories when you start listening to the elders and finding out how it all got started. Usually there’s a bigger story in there, too. It’s about overcoming some obstacles — it’s about resilience. Things are always changing; we see that every day. When you have a sense of who you are, where you come from, you can look at that and find a way forward. You can talk to your young people — they need to know the story, too!
Find your story to move forward
What we offer is a how-to for finding your community story. Step by step; we have written materials, we offer in-person or virtual assistance. It’s time to form your plan, start gathering stories, and figure out what they mean.
Even the process of finding and documenting your story can bring people together. Got an anniversary — 25th? 50th? Centennial? Now is the time!
Join ‘All of US’: a community story-finding pilot program!
Write to us at jennifer@jenniferlader.com with the subject line “All of US” if you would like to be part of a new pilot program starting soon. Include a description of your community, a little about why this is the time to do this project, your name and (U.S. only) phone number.
If your community is a good match for this program, we will offer an initial individual consultation to help you assess where you are in the process and how you might move forward. If we’re a good fit, representatives of up to three communities will then be able to meet together as a group with Jennifer virtually once a month for support as they plan their community research projects, start gathering their stories, and identify themes. Themes are what make your community unique and special, they are woven in among your story.
We know how to find your story thread. That is our specialty.
Your story very likely has many parts and phases, sometimes entirely new settings or casts of characters. You may need to rely on oral histories, old journals, newspaper archives, or library research.
Our view is that life as we live it is a very big adventure. What you as a community become is not just the outcome of one hero’s journey, but the cumulative effect of many people’s journeys — the chapters that make up the book of your community’s history.
Great things can happen!
Finding that story, collaboratively, and putting that story into words means you will:
- Become able to talk about your community in a new, more effective way;
- Let your purpose shine through to others and attract helpful people;
- See the end of that rainbow in the distance, the one that you want to reach; and
- Reclaim your story, making it possible to also discover a roadmap for the journey ahead.
Jennifer helped us look at our organization in a different way, focusing on our strengths and experience. She helped us answer the question, ‘How do we best use this?’
— Fred Bonsall, principal, Bonsall Shafferman Architects
Our Process for finding your story
We have a process and it is one that we can adapt to any situation. The least this process requires:
- Knowledgeable individuals to speak with in person or by phone or videoconference;
- Time for the initial discussion.
- Feedback and collaboration because this is an iterative process;
- Openness to what may emerge from the look-back; and
- An insatiable curiosity about what you could do next.
About Us
Jennifer Lader has written hundreds of personal profiles, human interest stories, and letters or stories for her newspaper columns. She operates two businesses in which finding the stories that build connections is key. Jennifer won 1st Place for excellence in an international writing awards competition and has been interviewed on radio and television. She has led workshops and given presentations on finding and sharing your story. She co-leads workshops on “The Self & the Social Fabric: Writing Stories to Heal a Divided Age” and “Finding the Self in the Social Fabric: A Memoir Writing Workshop.” Jennifer’s undergraduate degree is in anthropology and she has a master’s in public administration, with a focus on organizational culture. She’s a member of the Author’s Guild and the Nonfiction Writers Association.
For Stories on Purpose click here.