FAIRFAX YOUTH INITIATIVE - STORY TELLING PROJECT

Fairfax Youth Initiative or FYI as we affectionately like to call it, is a creative development program  for students in grade 7 - 10. It includes a variety of creative workshops in the Arts industry and working with mentors to improve on skills and learn many more. This year it was a little bit different because of COVID-19, as it was open for anyone aged 13 - 25. We turned to the infamous Zoom which allowed us to work with our mentors to write some amazing stories. These ranged from plays, to real-life events and even songs. 

Chelsea, Michael, Sam and Bryce all did the most amazing job mentoring us and turning our stories into something spectacular. We worked on our pieces from December 2020 to the end of March 2021 with our mentors to perfect them. 

There were many schools across the region involved and it was great to hear what everyone else has experienced and to learn ways on how you could improve your own story and how you can use different techniques to present them. After spending countless weeks working on making our stories to the best of our abilities and attending many Zoom workshops where we met with all the mentors and storytellers, we had a showcase where we all presented our stories. We held one big Zoom call and invited family and friends to watch us present our pieces. 

One by one we took turns to tell our stories. It was so incredible to see how everyone presented them, from the emphasis in their speech to the way they waved their arms around like a maniac to prove a point. It was great to see some people get involved and interact. Deaken brought his dad to play a song with him and Kelly had Trinity help him out with a scene from his play that he wrote. Ihad Sam (the inspiration for my story) speak about how much it meant to him. Everyone did the most amazing job. 

Deaken, Trinity, Toni Mia, Kelly and I all loved the experience and can’t wait to see where our stories go next. This once in a lifetime experience is something that I would recommend for anyone to participate in in the future. Once again Fairfax has been an eye opening and life changing experience for all who participated.

This isn’t the end of the journey for some of us. The Fairfax mentors are working on the planning for Stage 2 of this storytelling project. Watch this space to see what happens next……….