Our Voices
“Amazing, uplifting, fun, interesting and educational”
“I really enjoyed the project, it was great to be involved with and I’d love the chance to do something similar again”
“A sense of inclusion, hope”
“It was a fun and amazing experience, I got to meet more friends and learn lots about photography!”
“Through the workshops I learnt how to be more creative with photography and got to meet people that are just like me.”
“I think that the workshops allowed me to connect with other young people and to also harness some of my writing abilities to help better verbalise my emotions around different things in my life”
“It was a great experience, and an amazing workshop to be a part of and for more trans kids to know there’s so much more people out there that are just like us”
“It was a wonderful experience that we gained so much from. Thank you for letting us be a part of it.”
- Above is feedback from participants in the 2022 advocacy program designed and delivered for Transcend Australia, Transgender Victoria and Parents of Gender Diverse Children.
Our Voices is an advocacy program that aims to give partner organisations the opportunity to empower their communities to connect and share stories from their own unique point of view. Too often communities of all kinds are spoken about and not included in important conversations that may effect their lives. Our Voices gives communities an opportunity to connect individuals whilst elevating their voices through storytelling.
Folkal will design a program with your organisation that has specific outputs such as a certain number of images with captions created by participants to be used across social media platforms and other marketing and communication for the organisation, as well as advocacy.
This is a unique and highly valuable way of creating authentic and meaningful messages that can be used as evergreen content to raise awareness, advocate, fundraise and more, while also providing a wonderful opportunity for your community to connect, share and build relationships, in a safe, creative and fun space.
What can I expect?
Participants are recruited usually by the partner organisation, in consultation with Folkal, and take part in a series of group and one to one workshops usually online, but can be in person, to develop their visual storytelling and creative writing skills to tell an authentic personal story.
The result of the workshops are tangible assets in the form of photography and written captions that tell a personal story in relation to a common issue a community may be facing.
Risk assessments and consent processes form an important part of our workshops, especially where identities may be made public. Safety of participants is of high priority to Folkal and considered very carefully through each step of our programs.
Is it for me?
Advocacy programs are well suited to organisations that support specific communities, are advocating for a cause and require personal stories to assist with educating, advocating, lobbying, fundraising and/ or generally raising awareness about an issue in society.
Next Steps
If you are an organisation looking to run Our Voices for your community, services users or staff, please contact us to book a discovery call.
If you are an individual interested in participating in a program, please join our mailing list to keep up to date with upcoming face to face and online programs.
You can also visit our Case Studies page to see real life examples of our programs.
All images above are © Program Participants 2022 & 2023