A new study published by the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs finds that storytelling initiatives can motivate and create community and opportunity among young people working in family planning.
Providing an opportunity for young people to publicly share their personal stories about family planning can help elevate their visibility, motivate them and instill confidence and pride in their work, according to a small new study from the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs.
The findings, published Feb. 13 in the journal Health Promotion Practice, were based on interviews with 11 young professionals (ages 18 to 30) from Africa, Latin America and South Asia who shared their stories with Family Planning Voices (FP Voices), an online platform that documents stories from people around the world who are passionate about family planning. FP Voices, a collaboration between CCP and Family Planning 2020, has published photographs and interviews with more than 800 people since 2015.
“These young professionals told us that by sharing their personal stories with FP Voices, they gained greater recognition for their work and expanded their professional connections and opportunities,” says CCP’s Anne Ballard Sara, MPH, who led the research.
“They felt the experience highlighted the value that young professionals provide to the larger family planning field. They appreciated that FP Voices gave their stories the same weight and visibility as that of globally recognized leaders whose interviews were also included on the site.”
Everyone who shares their story with FP Voices has a professional portrait taken to accompany their story. Many of those in the study said having access to a professional headshot and the experience of being interviewed were valuable to their career development.
FP Voices stories are published on the initiative’s website and shared widely through social media. The young professionals interviewed also typically shared their stories on their own social media accounts as well as those of the organizations where they work. Many of those interviewed for the new study shared examples of how they felt that others – including family members, coworkers or other professionals – took them more seriously after their story was published.