Economic Development Corporation - NARRATIVE İNFRASTRUCTURE

Meet Sector Demands with the right Infrastructure—Narrative İnfrastructure

Outcompete Other Centers with your Sense of Place

Help the public you serve by starting from what they already understand:

Mitigate the risks of community support by knowing the social issues block-by-block.
When it comes to the final round between city’s with matching capacity and competitive incentive packages, stand out with a plan for long-term continuity with the community sense of place.
Identify areas of need and natural supporters.
Identify areas inappropriate for projects.
Re-frame technical data in presentations to the community in terms they already understand.

Use by Department

Attract the Talent, Attract Good Employers

All sectors need talent, and good talent can be hard to keep with just a decent job. Mitigate the attrition risk by building on the sense of place.

Example Nİ at Denver

Innovation + Community Support = Sustainable Growth

Community Narratives super-charge newcomer integration, and the kids can help!

Help us build

How You Can Use Community Stories in Your Department:

Targeted Redevelopment Projects

Identifying areas with strong community identity and historical significance to inform redevelopment projects that preserve local character and prevent displacement. Stories can highlight which historical building are important to the community, and which are not.

"Walking through the neighborhood, I listened to stories of Mrs. Henderson's pie shop, long gone, but the building still standing, its faded sign a reminder of community gatherings. Conversely, tales of the old tannery, now a crumbling concrete slab, were filled with hardship and a desire for its removal. These narratives helped us distinguish between structures holding cherished memories, worth preserving in redevelopment, and those tied to painful histories, signaling areas ripe for transformation without fear of displacing community identity."

Support Your Mission

Attracting Businesses to Specific Areas

Showcasing the unique stories and cultural assets of different neighborhoods to attract businesses that align with the community's values and needs.

"In the old mill district, stories of the river's bustling past, of families working together, echoed in the local artisan's tales of crafting with reclaimed wood. We used these narratives to attract a boutique distillery, emphasizing the area's history of craftsmanship and community, aligning perfectly with their brand and drawing in customers seeking authentic experiences, not just another bar."

Support Your Mission

Small Business Development Initiatives

Mapping stories of local entrepreneurs and small business owners to understand their challenges and successes. This can inform the development of targeted support programs and resources.

"Mapping the journey of Mr. Chen, who started his grocery with a single cart, and Mrs. Rodriguez, who built her catering business from church potlucks, revealed common struggles: access to capital and marketing support. Their stories became the backbone of our new micro-loan program and digital marketing workshops, tailored to the specific needs of our local entrepreneurs, fostering growth from within."

Support Your Mission

Brownfield Redevelopment

Understanding the historical context of contaminated sites and the impact of past industrial activities on surrounding communities. This can inform remediation efforts and ensure that redevelopment projects address community concerns.

"The stories of the old chemical plant, where generations worked but also fell ill, permeated the community's fears about the vacant lot. By gathering these stories, we understood the deep-seated distrust. This informed our remediation plan, prioritizing transparency and community involvement. Super-fund status was won on technical grounds, but having the lingering worry about pollution needed to be resolved if the site was going to be viable. That meant borrowing and mixing stories from adjoining neighborhoods to pitch new uses that leveraged happier memories."

Support Your Mission

Public-Private Partnerships

Using community stories to build trust and foster collaboration between developers, residents, and city agencies. This can help ensure that development projects are aligned with community needs and priorities.

"When the new housing development for the plant was proposed, tensions flared. We knew the stories of past developments that ignored community needs, so we facilitated a dialogue. This led to a collaborative visioning process, incorporating decades-old resident memories, transforming a potentially contentious project into a shared vision."

Support Your Mission

Workforce Development Strategies

Collecting stories about the skills and talents of the local workforce, as well as the needs of local employers. This can inform the development of workforce training programs that meet the needs of businesses and residents.

"Listening to the tales of the skilled machinists who once powered the city's factories, and contrasting them with the current struggles of local tech startups to find qualified programmers, highlighted a skills gap. Attracting talent is one trick, keeping it is quite another. We used these community stories to shape targeted events programming, bridging the past's depth with the future's demands, ensuring a workforce ready to put up a fight for our community."

Support Your Mission

Tourism Development

Highlighting the city's unique history, cultural attractions, and local businesses to attract tourists and boost the local economy.

"Instead of generic brochures, we created walking tours guided by local storytellers, weaving tales of the city's hidden murals, the ghost stories of the old theater, and the immigrant histories behind our diverse cuisine. This transformed our city from a drive-through town to a destination, attracting tourists eager to experience our authentic, layered contemporary life with history."

Support Your Mission

Measuring the Impact of Development Projects

Collecting stories about the impact of development projects on residents' quality of life, sense of belonging, and access to resources. This can help the MDC evaluate the effectiveness of its projects and make adjustments as needed.

"After the new plant was built, we didn't just count full-time-equivalents; we collected surveys. Did families feel safer? Were children playing more? Did neighbors connect? Adding to base-industry is important, but keeping base-industry is ten-times more important. You need to keep those big players. That meant giving the long-story of the community and showing how our actions are perpetuating that sense of place, respecting it, and leveraging it. Asset management one-oh-one."

Support Your Mission

Building Community Trust

By actively listening to and incorporating community stories into its decision-making processes, the MDC can build trust and demonstrate its commitment to serving the needs of all residents.

"By consistently incorporating oral histories into our planning meetings, and by publicly acknowledging the community's narratives, we demonstrated that we were not just boosters, but builders. This fostered trust, reduced skepticism, and created a sense of shared ownership in the city's future, proving that true progress starts with genuine listening. It is unrealistic to have a steering committee for every meeting, but having community narratives relevant to individual lots at our fingertips has greatly improved our ability to balance the businesses need for core infrastructure while leveraging our portfolio in the narrative infrastructure."

Support Your Mission

Advocating for Business-Friendly Policies

Documenting stories about the challenges faced by local businesses due to city regulations or policies. This provides data to support advocacy for business-friendly policies and regulations.

"By documenting the stories of businesses struggling with outdated regulations and bureaucratic hurdles, our narrative infrastructure provides compelling evidence for the need for business-friendly policies. This collection of firsthand accounts strengthens our advocacy, ensuring our city's policies support the growth and success of local businesses."

Support Your Mission

How You Can Use Community Stories in Your Department:

Targeted Redevelopment Projects

Identifying areas with strong community identity and historical significance to inform redevelopment projects that preserve local character and prevent displacement. Stories can highlight which historical building are important to the community, and which are not.

"Walking through the neighborhood, I listened to stories of Mrs. Henderson's pie shop, long gone, but the building still standing, its faded sign a reminder of community gatherings. Conversely, tales of the old tannery, now a crumbling concrete slab, were filled with hardship and a desire for its removal. These narratives helped us distinguish between structures holding cherished memories, worth preserving in redevelopment, and those tied to painful histories, signaling areas ripe for transformation without fear of displacing community identity."

Support Your Mission

Attracting Businesses to Specific Areas

Showcasing the unique stories and cultural assets of different neighborhoods to attract businesses that align with the community's values and needs.

"In the old mill district, stories of the river's bustling past, of families working together, echoed in the local artisan's tales of crafting with reclaimed wood. We used these narratives to attract a boutique distillery, emphasizing the area's history of craftsmanship and community, aligning perfectly with their brand and drawing in customers seeking authentic experiences, not just another bar."

Support Your Mission

Small Business Development Initiatives

Mapping stories of local entrepreneurs and small business owners to understand their challenges and successes. This can inform the development of targeted support programs and resources.

"Mapping the journey of Mr. Chen, who started his grocery with a single cart, and Mrs. Rodriguez, who built her catering business from church potlucks, revealed common struggles: access to capital and marketing support. Their stories became the backbone of our new micro-loan program and digital marketing workshops, tailored to the specific needs of our local entrepreneurs, fostering growth from within."

Support Your Mission

Brownfield Redevelopment

Understanding the historical context of contaminated sites and the impact of past industrial activities on surrounding communities. This can inform remediation efforts and ensure that redevelopment projects address community concerns.

"The stories of the old chemical plant, where generations worked but also fell ill, permeated the community's fears about the vacant lot. By gathering these stories, we understood the deep-seated distrust. This informed our remediation plan, prioritizing transparency and community involvement. Super-fund status was won on technical grounds, but having the lingering worry about pollution needed to be resolved if the site was going to be viable. That meant borrowing and mixing stories from adjoining neighborhoods to pitch new uses that leveraged happier memories."

Support Your Mission

Public-Private Partnerships

Using community stories to build trust and foster collaboration between developers, residents, and city agencies. This can help ensure that development projects are aligned with community needs and priorities.

"When the new housing development for the plant was proposed, tensions flared. We knew the stories of past developments that ignored community needs, so we facilitated a dialogue. This led to a collaborative visioning process, incorporating decades-old resident memories, transforming a potentially contentious project into a shared vision."

Support Your Mission

Workforce Development Strategies

Collecting stories about the skills and talents of the local workforce, as well as the needs of local employers. This can inform the development of workforce training programs that meet the needs of businesses and residents.

"Listening to the tales of the skilled machinists who once powered the city's factories, and contrasting them with the current struggles of local tech startups to find qualified programmers, highlighted a skills gap. Attracting talent is one trick, keeping it is quite another. We used these community stories to shape targeted events programming, bridging the past's depth with the future's demands, ensuring a workforce ready to put up a fight for our community."

Support Your Mission

Tourism Development

Highlighting the city's unique history, cultural attractions, and local businesses to attract tourists and boost the local economy.

"Instead of generic brochures, we created walking tours guided by local storytellers, weaving tales of the city's hidden murals, the ghost stories of the old theater, and the immigrant histories behind our diverse cuisine. This transformed our city from a drive-through town to a destination, attracting tourists eager to experience our authentic, layered contemporary life with history."

Support Your Mission

Measuring the Impact of Development Projects

Collecting stories about the impact of development projects on residents' quality of life, sense of belonging, and access to resources. This can help the MDC evaluate the effectiveness of its projects and make adjustments as needed.

"After the new plant was built, we didn't just count full-time-equivalents; we collected surveys. Did families feel safer? Were children playing more? Did neighbors connect? Adding to base-industry is important, but keeping base-industry is ten-times more important. You need to keep those big players. That meant giving the long-story of the community and showing how our actions are perpetuating that sense of place, respecting it, and leveraging it. Asset management one-oh-one."

Support Your Mission

Building Community Trust

By actively listening to and incorporating community stories into its decision-making processes, the MDC can build trust and demonstrate its commitment to serving the needs of all residents.

"By consistently incorporating oral histories into our planning meetings, and by publicly acknowledging the community's narratives, we demonstrated that we were not just boosters, but builders. This fostered trust, reduced skepticism, and created a sense of shared ownership in the city's future, proving that true progress starts with genuine listening. It is unrealistic to have a steering committee for every meeting, but having community narratives relevant to individual lots at our fingertips has greatly improved our ability to balance the businesses need for core infrastructure while leveraging our portfolio in the narrative infrastructure."

Support Your Mission

Advocating for Business-Friendly Policies

Documenting stories about the challenges faced by local businesses due to city regulations or policies. This provides data to support advocacy for business-friendly policies and regulations.

"By documenting the stories of businesses struggling with outdated regulations and bureaucratic hurdles, our narrative infrastructure provides compelling evidence for the need for business-friendly policies. This collection of firsthand accounts strengthens our advocacy, ensuring our city's policies support the growth and success of local businesses."

Support Your Mission

Narrative İnfrastructure at Denver, Colorado:

How a 13-Year-Old started Narrative İnfrastructure:

Unveiling a Living History: Interactive Archives for Learning

We are thrilled to unveil a pioneering project that transforms historical archives into a dynamic, interactive learning experience. Our team at Narrative İnfrastructure revitalized the Barry Matchett University Park Oral History Collection, a remarkable archive collected by then 13-year-old Barry in 1986.

Audio Archive at D.U.

From Scout Project to Digital Map: Revitalizing Local Narratives

We’ve transformed 15 hours of compelling interviews into a “narrative infrastructure,” mapping 383 unique stories that span six decades of Denver’s history in University Park.

Urban Study Using Stories

Empowering Students, Transforming Communities:

Imagine empowering the children of your community to explore the evolution of their community through the firsthand accounts of its residents, locating each narrative on a digital map. This project not only preserves invaluable historical data but also provides a powerful tool for urban management.

Get the Kids Involved!

Barry Matchett & Annita Andrick: click here to visit the Penrose Archives
Plat map of University Park
Oldest surviving home
Observatory of Denver University
Number 8 Train and "White" General Store
Click here to see a video of Berry's stories informing research
Click to launch Denver Narrative Infrastructure

Partner with Narrative İnfrastructure

Build Your Community’s Long-term Voice

Collaboration

Building Narrative İnfrastructure is not complicated, but we need local advocates to motivate educators to make the CHAT MAP workshop a part of their regular semester.

CHAT-MAPs is our school workshop program to build narrative infrastructure. The students collect the stories and we combine them:

1. Students collect and do basic mapping using their own devices and off the shelf software.
2. Narrative İnfrastructure compiles and creates the final, comprehensive neighborhood map (gratis for a limited number of classes per semester, apply early.)
3. Narrative İnfrastructure helps teachers involve planners, NGOs, local leaders, and neighborhood associations with the workshop to make the stories the students collect impactful now and into the future.

Nİ Benefits to Eco-Dev Activities

Get the GIS-ready data for helping your community: story data you can overlay with your usual management layers, or stories to ground a presentation or pitch. With robust Narrative İnfrastructure, you can:

- Preliminary concept evaluation before community feedback.
- Frame your proposals as extensions of the community’s stories.
- Identify areas of need and natural supporters.
- Identify areas inappropriate for projects.
- Re-frame technical data in presentations to the community in terms they already understand.

Flow of Story-Power

Services We Offer

- Training
- Mapping
- Project coordination
- Free continuing education
- Community Engagement Add-on service
- Outreach effort support (planning and marketing materials)

Please fill out the Interest Form: