Buttle UK

Buttle UK helps children and young people who are seriously in need throughout the UK. It makes grants to meet the critical needs of individual children and young people whose safety, health or development are at risk.

The brief

The charity’s Youth Panel was keen to create video content that showcases their experiences, helps raise awareness about Buttle UK's work, and positions them as advocates for the organisation. The group meets monthly online and three times a year in person and as a group they are particularly interested in social media content and storytelling with a mix of panel members who were enthusiastic about being on camera, while others preferred behind-the-scenes roles. The team at Buttle were looking for a partner who understood both the technical aspects of filmmaking and the ethical considerations of working with young people sharing personal stories. They needed someone who can facilitate authentic co-creation while still delivering professional-quality content that serves Buttle UK's strategic goals.

The process

We started by joining the group’s monthly online meeting to share knowledge about ethical storytelling and informed consent practices and chatting to the panel about what they wanted to achieve with the films and explored the different roles they would each take within the project. They agreed on having multiple shorter films targeting different audiences rather than one longer piece with content that focuses more on positive outcomes rather than crisis stories. A second online session allowed the group to shape their film ideas and receive practical training on how to capture effective content using their mobile phones ahead of our team joining their in-person residential weekend to capture their content and put their learning and plans into practice.

The Results

The Youth Panel and staff team were all really pleased with the end result films which were planned to launch alongside new charity branding. The development of skills within the group opened up opportunities for them to lead on future content creation ideas.

I showed the films at our staff away days this week and everyone loved them - they're such a different way of talking about and showing our work and are a really powerful way of demonstrating our commitment to youth voice.