Partner: Indigo Shire Council 

What makes this project special 

One of the things we love most about storytelling is how it enables people to connect with others from different walks of life, both in the process of sharing your story and in listening to the stories of others. Digital storytelling in particular, is a powerful process for facilitating connection between different generations and demographics within the community. 

This was the motivation behind ‘We Know Your Name But Not Your Story’, a digital storytelling program which was first run in Corangamite Shire in 2017, and designed and facilitated by the awesome folk at Humankind Enterprises. 

After seeing the incredible impact that this program had in Corangamite Shire, Indigo Shire Council wanted to run a program with the same ethos, to amplify the stories of young people and nourish connection in the community. With the turbulence of 2020, it also highlighted how they are rising to challenges, and ready to change their community, and the world for the better. 

A bird’s eye view

“What has impressed me most about working with these young people is their sense of enthusiasm, their high level of resilience, their creative vision and taking this opportunity in both hands and running with whilst none of us had any idea what was going to happen in the future. I hope more programs like this are established in more communities.” – Meg Sheehan, Indigo Shire Youth Officer

The background – for those who want to dive a little deeper

Community connection is incredibly important, and so too is cultivating a sense of place and belonging. The blueprint for the ‘We Know Your Name But Not Your Story’ program was first developed in Corangamite Shire in south-western Victoria in response to reports that young people were feeling increasingly disconnected from their local community. After a successful youth-led design process and program implementation by Humankind Enterprises in Corangamite, Indigo Shire Council wanted to adapt and roll out the program in their local government area in the north-east of the state in early 2020.

The challenge

The challenge was to design a program that empowered the young participants to become effective storytellers, including how to effectively listen to the stories in their community and the technical skills of selecting and editing cinematic footage together.  

The program was originally conceptualised to have young people in Indigo Shire sharing and listening to stories with older generations in the community. However, partway through the program, the onset of the pandemic and restrictions throughout Victoria, not to mention the high-risk if any of the older participants were to contract COVID, resulted in the need to quickly adapt the program. 

“My favourite thing that I learnt would be how to use Kinemaster for future videos…It takes a bit of time, but you’ve got to persist. It’s worth it.” – Oscar, student, Yackandandah Primary School 

The solution 

Instead of a face-to-face program over one term across two schools, our Stories for Impact facilitators shifted to a virtual workshop delivery, within the school day, for students from years 5 and 6, to support them to learn storytelling skills safely and from home. We also ran a storytelling mentoring program outside of school hours for other young people in the Shire. 

Together with Indigo Shire Council, and inspired by the original concept run by Humankind Enterprises in Corangamite Shire, our skilled Stories for Impact team developed a bespoke program to train young people in the technical side of digital storytelling and to help them tell emotive, heartfelt and human-centred stories. 

 The students were encouraged to tell stories about community members with whom they could safely engage in line with COVID restrictions. This meant telling stories about family members and about themselves. The result was a collection of stories that, together, form a time capsule of sorts, encapsulating what it meant to be a young person in Indigo Shire during the 2020 pandemic.  

“I’m actually proud of doing it and I’d like to make more films about interesting people and their background.”- Audrey, student, Yackanandah Primary School

What emerged – the key outcomes

Through the program, we were able to:

Story artefacts – what was ‘created’

‘Story artefacts’ is what you have in your hands as a result of a storytelling process (e.g. videos, blog posts, animations, illustrations). Throughout the ‘We Know Your Name But Not Your Story’ program, the students created:

NEXT: Voices of Victoria – Leading Through Lockdown – The Social Enterprise Network of Victoria