PADSIP

The Year 9 PADSIP Experience 

This Term, our Year 9 Intergenerational Program elective students participated in the PADSIP experience. Over the past 10 weeks, the class worked with older adults from our local community to develop digital stories guided by the theme of "Turning Points" in our lives.

What is the PADSIP Concept

The Positive Ageing Digital Storytelling Intergenerational Program, or PADSIP, encompasses two primary components: digital storytelling, and intergenerational practice. Digital storytelling is the practice of combining “first person” narrative with digital content (including images, sound, music, animation and video) to create a short movie that highlights the personal experience-not just facts. It serves as a transformative tool, facilitating therapeutic processes during creation and offering a platform for advocacy and change. The intergenerational dimension fosters purposeful exchange and mutually beneficial learning between older and younger generations, nurturing relationships, community cohesion, and challenging ageism. The program aims to cultivate a sense of belonging and mutual support, facilitating the transfer of knowledge, wisdom, and resilience across generations. 

Our PADSIP Partners

PADSIP has been running at Auburn High School since it opened in 2014. The program is supported by a talented team from Swinburne University’s Wellbeing Clinic for Older Adults. Our videographer, Sean Summers, worked intuitively and sensitively with our participating students and older adults to capture their “Turning Point” stories. 

The Stories

The digital stories produced this term included one older adult’s account of  leaving apartheid South Africa for a new “free” life in Australia, shared stories of being persuaded to change from being a left-hander to a being a right-hander and the impact that it had, an account of learning the values of gratitude and patience having spend an extended time in hospital, accounts of discovering that a hobby can become a passion and possible career, and an account of the impact of winning a Logie Award for producing a road safety documentary in 1976. 

We thank all participants for sharing their stories. 

Craig McPherson