By Janiece Watts and Isak Kvam | February 25, 2025
In September 2024, Fresh Energy began an innovative partnership with Jothsna Harris, founder of Change Narrative, to explore how personal storytelling can strengthen our climate advocacy work. This collaboration comes at a crucial time as we implement Vision 2030, our ambitious five-year strategic framework to shape and drive bold policy solutions to achieve equitable carbon-neutral economies, including traditionally challenging sectors like agriculture and heavy industry.
Change Narrative’s approach centers on a powerful premise: while climate change presents a global challenge, our motivations to address it are deeply personal. Through guided workshops, Harris helps organizations uncover and articulate the individual stories that drive their commitment to climate action. Through reflective writing prompts and sharing drafts of our stories with colleagues, the process recognizes that each person’s journey to climate work is unique and valuable, shaped by their experiences, relationships, and connection to place.
For Fresh Energy’s staff, our three phases of workshops with Jothsna have revealed a common thread: a profound love for Minnesota, both the landscapes and its communities. We’ve explored our individual connections to special natural spaces that bring us joy and a sense of responsibility, reflected on moments of both power and powerlessness, and acknowledged the people in our lives that have shaped our values and those who we are creating a better future for. These deeply personal explorations help us become grounded in the “why” of our climate work.
Climate change affects different communities in distinct ways, and solutions will be as diverse as the challenges we face. By embracing personal storytelling, we have recognized the many different skills and perspectives that our staff bring to our mission to equitably decarbonize Minnesota and how we can effectively share our expertise with others.
Fresh Energy’s work with Jothsna is ongoing, and we are continuing to deepen our understanding of our individual climate stories and identify common themes among our staff. As these narratives emerge, we’ll begin weaving them into our professional work, creating more meaningful and powerful connections to the communities we serve. We invite you to join us by reflecting on your own climate story by asking yourself what drives your concern about climate change, and what future you envision for Minnesota.
To support Fresh Energy’s work in rapidly building an equitable, decarbonized future for Minnesota and the Midwest, please consider making a donation to support our work. Our work advocating for a carbon-free economy that works for all Minnesotans is more important than ever before.
Stay tuned to fresh-energy.org for more updates as we continue our storytelling workshops with Change Narrative.