“A Life of Opportunity” – Harmony Day Stories for Department of Social Services

Authentic human stories are an effective way to help people understand the settlement journey, benefits of multicultural communities and importance of social cohesion. The Department of Social Services have a holistic approach to communicating about settlement and multicultural communities by telling the ‘end to end’ story through a unifying narrative, and are building a bank of positive, personal stories, both written and filmed. Key themes cover community support and volunteering, settlement of Syrian and Iraqis, employment pathways and showcase the settlement journey as well as the benefits of Australia’s cultural diversity. In mid 2016, Digital Storytellers was chosen to provide the initial six stories populating the Settlement Storybank, and two new video stories to support the government’s Multicultural Statement, were created for Harmony Day 2017, 21 March 2017.