The Lived Experience Toolkit was developed in partnership with Story is Connection and funding from a Study NSW partner program. It aims to develop and proliferate resources for the improvement of the mental health of NSW international students.
LET Your Story Talk is a toolkit centred around the stories of nine international students, represented in short film. It intends to promote discussion of common challenges and destigmatise asking for help, to the end of de-stigmatising mental health challenges among new students.
Visit the website: https://www.letyourstorytalk.com/
“ISANA believes the creation of a resource that inspires conversation and destigmatises mental health within the international student community will be a valuable asset available for use by all NSW education providers. We will bring our unique practice that creatively engages international students through powerful storytelling which in turn will inspire connection and understanding with audiences. The resource will address key issues impacting international students and the stories told will underpin the development of a digital orientation toolkit.” Annette Kalczynska, ISANA ACTiveNSW Branch President. August 2022.
ISANA is pleased to announce that we have received a grant from Study NSW Partner Projects, 2021/22. The grant will fund the proliferation of the Lived Experience Toolkit (LET).
A program that facilitates conversation of mental health challenges, and which centres anecdotal advice from fellow students will be invaluable to all international students across NSW.
The toolkit aims to create films of 7 chapters. Each film will be developed to centre one student’s encounters with social stigmas or mental health challenges, while introducing to the audience wider issues identified by peers and consulting partners. In introducing this asset, LET Your Story Talk will enable ‘role models’ among students to normalise discussions of mental health problems, and address stigmas surrounding the seeking of help from professionals and peers. In this way, anecdotal knowledge can become the backbone of a digital orientation toolkit across NSW.
