Public Health professionals have put digital stories to work, using them to improve provider knowledge and to help communities talk about health care issues. As part of a grant to investigate maternal depression among the Cambodian population in Lowell, MA, for example, Storybuilders has worked with graduate students from the Boston University School of Public Health to gather stories from Lowell community members about the causes of their depression and their strategies for negotiating this depression. Stories like Courtney's can teach health care providers about the culturally-complex causes of depression. These stories are also valuable as outreach tools, and have been used to get groups of women in the Lowell community talking about depression, which is a hidden and seldom-discussed topic.

Writing in the 21st century is no longer limited to alphabetic text on the static page. To express oneself, to communicate, and to persuade, writers now have a wide range of media available -- the written word, images, sound and video.

Organizational culture is built on stories. Storybuilders runs team-building workshops, where organizational members come together for several days, first writing stories about why they do the work that they do, and then turning these stories into short videos.

These videos often convey stories not told in traditional public relations materials, stories useful for recruiting, marketing and training.

Watch Gerald Chertavian's story story about a relationship key to the values of his organization, Year Up.

Storybuilders has worked with both the MIT Alumni Association and the MIT Museum to produce stories for its Museum Without Walls. The project's aim is to collect stories from many members of the MIT community, and to link these stories to specific locations on campus. A visitor, or a MIT community member can then watch the stories on a wireless-enabled handheld device as they walk across the campus. A number of exciting location-based storytelling projects are happening across the country, like the Organic City in Oakland, CA, murmur, which began in Toronto and has spread to a number of cities worldwide, and East Somerville's Community Mapping Project.

The Maternal and Child Health program at the Boston University School of Public Health has been training graduate students and employees of the Boston Public Health Commission to make digital stories about maternal depression. Rena's story, told by Rena Theum and produced by BUSPH graduate student Lorenza Holt and Storybuilders, is one such story. Soon, Project Solve will have its own website, featuring digital stories and materials related to maternal depression.