In late 2017, p.h. balanced films debuted our Reel Women Real Change program for women to use storytelling, particularly filmmaking, as a platform to advocate causes that matter most to their communities. We launched our knowledge exchange workshops in Nepal, then expanded to other countries. This sharing of best practices in advocacy and storytelling, as well as navigating the long arc of fighting for justice informed programming we'll launch along with our updated name in June 2023.
In much of the world, women's voices are not being heard - and public policy often fails because of it. The stifling of relevant voices yields uninformed policies that, even if well-intentioned, fail to reach their full potential for communities they are meant to serve. (Note that this work informed our broader focus on advocacy communications, as we will outline in launching our next project in June 2023.)
Our holistic approach ensures impactful storytelling with an advocacy strategy from beginning to end. Each cohort builds community and all graduates are matched with a mentor through our international mentorship program, which provides ongoing support to graduates as they apply workshop learnings to bring stories to the right audiences to inform policy and maximize positive impact.
While policy can change in the stroke of a pen, the process of winning political support can take decades. While video can be shot and uploaded in minutes, creating effective film and a strategy to influence social change can take years. Our curriculum and mentorship programming is designed for the long term. We are amplifying more women's voices to, in turn, amplify community stories and inform policy in every country in which we operate.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
