We Speak

An advocacy campaign for Transcend Australia, Transgender Victoria and Parents of Gender Diverse Children.

“We worked with Natalie to design a public campaign with families and young people we work with. Natalie showed great care and was very respectful in all her interactions, she was a very effective communicator. She was able to produce an engaging campaign that was very well received and valued in our community. We would love to work with her again if the opportunity arises.”

Jeremy Wiggins

CEO Transcend Australia

Project Overview

Through funding received from the Victorian Government, Transcend Australia with Transgender Victoria and Parents of Gender Diverse Children produced a social media campaign to promote positive messaging surrounding trans young people and their families by amplifying their voices and stories. The campaign was primarily in response to the negative and harmful media coverage about trans young people connected to the Religious Discrimination Bill and the 2022 federal election campaign.

A large part of these public debates and subsequent reporting in the media was driven by adults who have limited understanding and knowledge of the experiences of trans young people and their families. Trans young people and their families were misrepresented through deliberate sharing of disinformation. They were not included in conversations that would have a huge impact on their lives and basic human rights.

Goal

The goal was to produce a social media campaign that highlights positive messaging and real life stories first hand from trans young people in response to the above mentioned negative messaging and disinformation. This would help combat the disinformation, give agency to the participants and young trans people in general over their own stories, and contribute towards building community.

How

Folkal designed and delivered a series of workshops where participants were guided through a structured process that allowed them to explore themselves, their identity and views on trans representation in the media. Collectively the participants brainstormed what messages they would like to see in place of the current messaging. They were then supported by Folkal to produce personal stories that would form the campaign.

These stories have been shared across the social media accounts of all partner organisations over a number of weeks with high engagement rates.

Impact

The impact from this project was two fold. The experience for participants was very positive helping build a sense of community for a group that is heavily marginalised, and giving them agency over their stories. The stories on social media live on providing the partner organisations with powerful evergreen content to be used for ongoing awareness, advocacy and fundraising. Following the project the stories have been designed into a printed zine and were taken to Parliament House in November 2022 to support a discussion with politicians about how pathways and human rights for trans young people can be improved.

Participant Feedback

“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.”

“Amazing, uplifting, fun, interesting and educational.”

“It was a wonderful experience that we gained so much from. Thank you for letting us be a part of it.”

“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.”

What key outcomes did you gain?

“A sense of inclusion and hope”

We hope you enjoy some of the stories below.

All graphic design © Margot Fink