Changing the Narrative in
George Town

The George Town Future Impact Group is championing the individual stories from community with the ambition of changing the narrative in George Town both internal and external perspectives.

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The 50 Gems of George Town Municipality is one of a number of community pride initiatives recommended to the George Town Council as part of a report developed by community, “Recommendations for Enhancing our Community Pride: Your Voice Matters, A Future Impact Group initiative”.

 

The 50 Gems project is a place-based multimedia project focused on surfacing the compelling stories and special ‘gems’ of the George Town Municipality community. This project seeks to champion these unique stories to ignite a conversation in and around their special community.

 

The subjects of the campaign – or ‘Gems’ – can be natural wonders, experiences, historical events (both present and past), youth leaders, social initiatives, local clubs or groups and local characters. This long-term project will continue for many years to come as a community-led initiative.

 

In the context of COVID-19, the project offers a platform to promote the region, reenergise the community, and drive intrigue into local tourism and hospitality destinations and other small businesses.

 

The sustainability for capturing the ‘gems’ of George Town is supported by the 50 Gems class. This class is run at [AC2] Port Dalrymple School and is supported by the FIG and Bell Bay Aluminium.

 

The class teaches students to:
 

• Understand the concepts of pride in place through the data collected from their community

• Identify what makes them proud to call George Town home

• Co-design the 10-week course as they participate

• Get hands on, practical experience using industry standard hardware

• Be mentored by special guests from the industry including Channel 7 news presenter Kim Miller and videographers

• Learn Adobe Premier Pro the industry standard editing software

• Produce videos that contribute to a broader, long-term community initiative that positively affects pride

• Get an example of meaningful pathways into the multimedia industry

 

This initiative has now been officially launched by the State Premiere and is becoming a fully community owned and long-term way of changing the narrative in a way that directly responds to the data collected from the voices of community.

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There have been many community consultations and funded initiatives over the years in George Town. Most have not led to significant or sustainable change in community aspiration and opportunity. The Future Impact Group had to design something that looked and felt different and delivered an inclusive, effective partnership with community that provided:

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• An invitation for all community members to engage in the longer change journey

• The voice of the people firmly at the centre of decision-making

• The beginnings of a shift in the narrative

• Data and insights throughout the journey to map the change in mind frames

• Opportunity to gather essential data to commence a whole of community plan

 

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