Videos that tell personal stories have well and truly earned their stripes as a staple of effective communication. Showing what something means by showing how it affects people in different circumstances works because it combines education with emotional impact.
But compelling stories that resonate with viewers, listeners and readers can also be extremely powerful for the person telling the story. Sharing their experiences, especially on a traumatic or sensitive subject, can be cathartic and help with acceptance and healing.
At Fenton, we have been privileged to hear many difficult, but brave, inspiring and necessary stories from a broad range of community members – about topics ranging from serious illness to institutional child sexual abuse.
Whatever the format and whatever the channel, we always seek informed consent from the person telling us their story and we take a careful and trauma-informed approach to working with them to develop and share what we’ve heard.
We sincerely thank everyone who has told us their story. We are honoured that they have trusted us, and are proud that they found it a positive experience. Most of all we admire their courage and commitment to coming forward so that other people might learn from or be inspired by their experiences.
Here are some of the people we have had the privilege of talking to recently: