Together with Dr Diane Levine (University of Leicester, UK), Prof Linda Theron (University of Pretoria- Centre for the Study of Resilience) was awarded a British Academy Newton Mobility grant to explore how digital story methods might advance adolescents’ capacity to give voice, as it were, to what enables resilience in the midst of apparently intractable adversities such as poverty, violence, loss, and environmental degradation. Linda and Di recruited collaborators from the University of Pretoria (Ms Mosna Khaile, RYSE project staff; Ms Katlego Nchoe, Department of Educational Psychology; Bongiwe Ncube, Educational Psychology masters student; and Mr Mthandekik Zhange, Educational Psychology masters student). Linda and Di trained these collaborators to facilitate digital stories.

The team then visited the RYSE project site (eMbalenhle, Mpumalanga) twice (20 July and 5 October) to work with 19 adolescents between the ages of 18 and 24. On the first occasion they supported these adolescents to tell stories of risk and resilience and then to co-create a group story of risk and resilience. Each group digitized their story using the digital story software. On the second occasion, each adolescent used digital story software to digitise a personal story of risk and resilience. The adolescents viewed one another’s stories and loudly applauded how the powerful stories portrayed the stark realities of endlessly difficult lives along with the personal and relational capacities that made it possible to triumph over these difficulties. Linda and Di are currently in the process of co-authoring journal articles about the digital story methodology and adolescent risk and resilience.