PPM Fest: Write Your Narrative: Asserting Credibility and Expertise

Challenge traditionally held standards of credibility, identify the expertise in your own lived experience, and outline a potential op-ed draft of your own in this workshop presented by Community Narratives and Community Engagement at Resolve Philly.  Take your outline beyond the workshop and into the next stage with direct support from Resolve’s Associate Editor of Community Narratives, ultimately pitching your finished piece among Resolve’s 29 newsroom partners. 

Presented by Dionicia Roberson, Associate Editor of Community Narratives and Natoya S. Brown, Community Engagement Associate

Please note, masks will be required for this session.

Dionicia "Dio" Roberson (she/they) Associate Editor of Community Narratives, comes to Resolve from nontraditional origins, having spent her childhood living in shelters and on sidewalks. Fully aware that a lot of the surface stuff was out of her reach, she was driven to find the deeper connections between herself and other humans. Through that approach, Dio learned the value of interpreting folks through the frame of experiences and conditions that everyone — not just most people — can relate to. She studied journalism as a means to find the voice to declare her own existence, as well as inspire and equip others to do the same. In partnership with Natoya, Dio is currently working on designing a catalogue of narrative workshops that creatively engage community partners across Philadelphia.

Natoya Brown (she/her) is a Program Associate on the Community Engagement Team at Resolve. Her background includes over a decade of coordinating public health programs and facilitating sexual health and parenting education for teens and young adults within Philly and the surrounding counties. She holds a B.A. in Professional Writing from Kutztown University and uses her experiences working with youth to create awareness around bias and barriers that exist for folks, particularly Black and Brown communities, navigating the healthcare system. Natoya's work has been featured on the websites MadameNoire, xoNecole and Bustle. She joined Resolve Philly in April of 2023 and has partnered with Dio to create a series of workshops that will support participants in exploring their experiences with identity, sexuality, culture and more through storytelling.