The Smith Family recently premiered ‘Alice and the Giant Emptiness’, the first animated short film in the series, which aims to draw attention to the struggles of children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Dr Lisa O’Brien, CEO of The Smith Family, says “These films are a new approach to raising awareness about the severe impact financial disadvantage has on children. It’s estimated that one in ten Australian children live in jobless families. Most people are unaware of this staggering statistic and just how large the group is.”

Rhys Kelly, Head of Communications of The Smith Family, explains to Third Sector that it can be a challenge to tell the stories of the children the organisation helps.

“Understandably, many parents and families don’t want to expose themselves and their personal lives to the public,” says Kelly. “We’ve found animation to be a perfect vehicle to tell the stories of the kids we help. Not only are we able to respect the integrity of the story – we’re able to deliver the real-life emotion behind the experiences of the children while retaining their anonymity.”

Kelly says that with the numerous distractions for people today – and demands on their time – it can be hard to get a message across. “In order to reach people, we have to sometimes try new and different approaches to grab their attention – and that’s what we’re endeavouring to do with ‘Alice…’,” she says.

So far, it appears the new approach has worked, with Kelly describing response to the film as “overwhelmingly positive”.

“Within a few days of being launched the film had been shared more than 600 times on Facebook, tweeted and re-tweeted to hundreds of thousands of people on Twitter, and viewed more than 10,000 times on YouTube,” she says. “Given ‘Alice…’ was always intended as the first short film in a series, the response has given us a great deal of encouragement to start considering the next instalment. We really want to build on the momentum we’ve started.”

However, despite The Smith Family’s success in using animation, Kelly says she does not believe this medium will supersede other more traditional methods of engaging and communicating with donors and the general public.

“Each [method] has its strength and place,” says Kelly. “But I think [animation is] likely to become a more commonly used tool in our advocacy and awareness-raising campaigns in the future.”

The Smith Family’s animation can be viewed at www.talesoftheoneinten.com

For more information visit www.thesmithfamily.com.au