Evolve Housing – Intercultural & Intergenerational Digital Storytelling Workshops

One of the most beautiful aspects of storytelling is how it allows people to connect with others from different walks of life, both by sharing stories and listening to the stories of others.

When Evolve Housing decide to run a program to facilitate intergenerational and intercultural engagement amongst their residents, they decided that digital storytelling would be a great tool for their residents to work with.

Over two weekends we ran workshops to teach Evolve residents how to FIND, MAKE and EDIT their own personal stories, in the lead up to a screening night at Western Sydney University. We were thrilled to see that residents from all ages and cultures put up their hands to learn how to use their smartphones to film and edit videos. We even had two translators there, with half of the group from Mandarin and Cantonese speaking backgrounds!

Many of the participants had migrated to Australia as seniors to be closer to their children and told stories about the transition to a new way of life and culture. Both the intergenerational and intercultural components were remarkable. The workshop brought people closer and helped to connect residents to each other.

As part of this workshop we also tackled very basic technical skills, to assist older residents in feeling comfortable with technology, like finding the camera app, sharing files and figuring out how to download apps.

Other more advanced participants in the course, Lee Reid,  used the opportunity to take steps forward on the path to taking on video storytelling as a career.   

“Most importantly our residents have developed friendships which are as diverse and inclusive as our organisation,” Andrea Galloway, MD and CEO of Evolve Housing said.

This program, financed with a grant from Multicultural NSW, finished with a beautiful event and screening at Western Sydney University where participants, trainers, family and staff members gathered to celebrate the journey and watch all the final films.