Narrative Strategy | Video + Content Development | Design + Editorial Direction
Girl Child Long Walk
“We want to condense 10,000 years of patriarchy into a simple explainer video. Can you help?”
Do Good Better loves a worthy challenge, and this request certainly qualified. A collaboration that began with that "simple" video — now in 11 languages — has evolved into a deep partnership with brilliant faith-inspired change agents, taking on the difficult, long-term work of understanding and untangling the ways patriarchal religion is often used as a tool of oppression, rather than offering a path to liberation.
The Girl Child Long Walk project is a joint initiative of Imago Dei Fund (based in Boston) and the Institute for Faith and Gender Empowerment (based in Bondo, Kenya). A core team had piloted a 9-month “reading journey” of an e-book, The Girl Child & Her Long Walk to Freedom, and was ready to evolve the structure and outreach for future cohorts. Do Good Better hosted an in-person workshop with the team in early 2020 to co-create a narrative strategy that could inform the explainer video and support a relaunch of the website and reading journey.
It didn't take long to land on a values-based narrative strategy that still grounds the work years later. Girl Child Long Walk is committed to nurturing Curiosity, leading to greater Awareness, and ultimately personal and collective Liberation — taking on the “villain” of Patriarchal Religion — and comes to life as the Reflective Detective. The values and archetype have been revisited and validated over time, as the core team has grown and new efforts have launched.
“In the early stages of co-creation, Amy and Guinevere set the direction and animating values of the project and helped us bond as a team. The breadth of their engagement with diverse social change efforts has been invaluable as we evolve and work to discern what is our unique and highest impact lane in the larger ecosystem of social justice work. The project has grown and unfolded in a very organic way that has been better and more strategic with Do Good Better by our side.”
— Emily Nielson Jones, Imago Dei Fund
Today the initiative features a fellowship program for faith-inspired change agents around the world, now in its second cohort; Do Good Better serves on the fellowship faculty, and has supported a suite of content, assets, and strategic direction over the years. As adjunct team members to complement staff expertise and trusted external collaborators, Do Good Better has been involved in the ongoing positioning and development of communications as the initiative has expanded offerings to global audiences, including deeper regional work in East Africa and Portuguese-speaking countries, and supporting fellows globally.
Collaborators
The Girl Child & Her Long Walk to Freedom e-book: Emily Nielsen Jones & Domnic Misolo
Understanding Our History of Patriarchy video: Ruben DeLuna, Ruben DeLuna Creative
Website, ebook, collateral design: Elissa Schloesser, Visual Voice
Do Good Better serves alongside the Girl Child’s global, distributed team of women.