What does it take for government and philanthropy to listen to stories more meaningfully? Together with Dusseldorp Forum and Hands Up Mallee, we are exploring how to create the conditions for stories to be heard by those who need to hear them.
It was nothing like an ordinary day at work.
How do we record engagement apart from with clipboards? Well, I have a white car and I had whiteboard markers and I drove downtown and said ‘decorate my car’.
We just invited young people to write their comments directly on the car. It was a spectacle, it attracted people to come and see what we were doing and - who doesn’t like tagging cars?
We were looking for people’s stories and dug around to get that input. How we gather information has to change because otherwise we will be building our city on a set of assumptions based on people who look like us. We won’t be building for the diversity of the population.
People have to tell their own stories and we need to make the effort to hear those stories, not just the ones who will fill out a survey. We can’t centre ourselves in the process. It’s so important that we talk about creating a space where they can contribute meaningfully and we’ve made it safe for them. We heard feedback from people: ‘this is the first time it felt like my voice mattered’.
We sought people out and we were able to build trust and have a real conversation. We learned that, what we thought was the problem, didn’t actually turn out to be the problem. They were such fascinating people. We still have them in our lives, which is kind of cool.
What does it take for government and philanthropy to listen to stories more meaningfully?
Together with Dusseldorp Forum and Hands Up Mallee, we are exploring how to create the conditions for stories to be heard by those who need to hear them.
