Alaska's Community Health Workers Speak Out About Digital Storytelling as a Community Engagement Tool

Alaska’s village-based Community Health Workers (CHWs) requested cancer information for themselves and their communities. An innovative health messaging tool, digital storytelling combines oral storytelling traditions with computer-based technology to provide a creative and engaging way for CHWs to tell their stories and pass on knowledge to support community wellness. Digital storytelling is portable and accessible using web technologies and social media outlets.

Methods: To explore digital storytelling as a tool for health messaging, creating digital stories was included in four, 5-day cancer education courses (March-October 2014).  Thirty CHWs, regardless of computer skills, each successfully created a digital story using free software. CHWs tracked their digital story showings for one month, and completed; end-of-course written evaluations, 2-3 month post-course interviews, and a 6 month internet survey. 

Results: CHWs reported increased confidence to share health information with family, friends, and clients. Creating digital stories gave CHWs a culturally relevant and meaningful tool to promote community wellness. Within one month, CHWs had collectively showed their stories over 57 times to over 959 viewers. Almost all (97%) of CHWs reported they felt more knowledgeable about sharing cancer information.  CHW comments illustrated their new-found comfort and commitment to talking about cancer: “I was never comfortable talking about cancer with family/patients. It's a hard subject. But I realize I really want my family/friends/people in my community around longer. I'm more comfortable talking about it now.”