Young people and adversity: The Looking Back project

The Looking Back 2020 project invited six young people (aged 20–27) with lived experience of adversity to share an inspiring story about their childhood. The result is a series of powerful short videos, conceived by each young person and produced with the help of artistic mentors and filmmakers. Largely taking place online during the Melbourne lockdown in 2020, the process was co-facilitated by artists Sylvie Meltzer and Melinda Hetzel for Artist Made Productions and Emerging Minds. It followed on from the first Looking Back project in 2019, which invited four young people to share what they wish practitioners had known or understood about their experiences of childhood adversity. The Looking Back videos were created for children and young people who may be experiencing struggles or worries in their lives. They’re designed to be shared by health professionals who work with families and children. These stories aim to give ideas, inspiration and hope to other children and young people experiencing adversity. In this episode, artists Melinda Hetzel and Sylvie Meltzer reflect on the experience of facilitating this process with the young people. In part two of this series, four of the six young participants discuss the process of developing the Looking Back videos and what they hope they will achieve. In this episode you will learn:

why the creative process is a great way to explore deeply personal experiences [03:02]
how Melinda and Sylvie created a safe space and supported everyone’s wellbeing during the project [05:33]
how partnerships were set up with the young people involved [10:31]
the relationship between co-design and collaborative artistic processes [12:05]

Further information and resources: Young people and adversity: The Looking Back project - part two (podcast) Looking Back series (videos)