Presentation at YTH Live Conference April 7, 2014, San Francisco, CA Nedra Kline Weinreich President, Weinreich Communications www.social-marketing.com

1. Transmedia Storytelling for
Mental Health Discrimination
Reduction and Social Inclusion
Nedra Kline Weinreich
April 6-8, 2014
San Francisco, CA
Annual Conference on Youth + Tech + Health
@Nedra

2. Stories are powerful.

3. How do
stories create
change?

4. Stories grab
people’s
attention.

5. Stories
make
abstract
concepts
concrete
and
relevant.

6. Stories shape our understanding &
interpretation of issues/events.
AdrianKinloch

7. Stories
provide
vicarious
experiences.
Photo: Bryan Rosengrant

8. Stories create empathy for others.

9. Stories create or reinforce social norms.
Photo:Sistak

10. Photo:Sistak
Transmedia Storytelling

11. Photo:Sistak
Immersive Engagement for
Change =
Behavior Change Model +
Good Storytelling +
Ubiquitous Media +
Participatory Experience +
Real World

12. 1 in 4 will have a
mental health issue
CCPhoto:JesseVaughan

13. Combating Misperceptions and
Discrimination
Social Contact Works!

14. • Funded by US Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Social
Inclusion Grant
• Collaboration of Project Return Peer Support
Network, the Painted Brain and Weinreich
Communications
• Population: Students at California Conservation
Corps High School in South Los Angeles
• Primarily low income, underserved, 18-24 years old
Living Our Stories –
Transmedia Storytelling Project

15. • Students would receive training in media skills
• Students would collaborate to create a cohesive
transmedia story related to mental health for their
peers
• Students would incorporate their own stories with
similar themes to the story
• Trained peers/group facilitators with lived
experience of mental health challenges would
work with the students to help them understand
the issue
Program as Conceived

16. • Students at CCC high school are older and
often have work/family obligations
• Two non-overlapping class cohort
schedules
• Students not willing/interested in working on
project outside of weekly meeting
• Major incentives required for participation
• Low participation rate – 3-10
students/session, not always same week to
week
Project Challenges

17. • Modular weekly activities – continuity not
essential
• Improv, hip hop, art, haiku stencils
• Thematic focus on students’ lives, related to
mental health issues, profiling, social inclusion
• Incentivized story element production
• Compilation of students’ own stories into an
overall transmedia experience
Current Program

20. http://LivingOurStories.tumblr.com

21. • People telling their own real stories are
powerful
• Participants make connections that you
might not have considered
• Be flexible in adapting the original plan to
what works
• Follow the participants’ preferences in
terms of which media to use
• Incentives work!
Lessons Learned

22. Nedra Kline Weinreich
www.Social-Marketing.com
weinreich@social-marketing.com
Twitter @Nedra