Young people and adversity: The Looking Back project – part two

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 children and young people experiencing adversity.

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 part one, artists Melinda Hetzel and Sylvie Meltzer reflect on what it was like to facilitate the creative process.

In this episode you will learn:

• how the young people managed both the creative process and the challenges of sharing their own personal story [11:07]
• what it was like for the young people co-creating a video with professional film makers [19:52]
• what the young people would now want to tell their inner child about their experiences [22:22]
• the young people’s hopes for the children watching these videos [23:18]

Further information and resources:

Young people and adversity: The Looking Back project – part two (podcast)

Looking Back series (videos)