Parenting Well Despite - A MECSH Success Story
Australian Research Alliance for Children & Youth (ARACY)
Case Study
Client: ARACY – The Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth
Sector: Health / Government Advocacy / Non-Profit
Services: Strategic Video Production, Creative Development, Stakeholder Engagement
Using Story to Influence Systems Change
ARACY came to us with a challenge: how do you make evidence-based research about early intervention feel personal, urgent, and human?
They needed a powerful tool to support national advocacy for the MESCH (Maternal Early Childhood Sustained Home-Visiting) program—an evidence-backed, nurse-led model designed to support at-risk mothers and children from pregnancy through to toddlerhood. The goal was to secure government funding and policy attention by shifting the conversation from clinical data to lived experience.
We partnered with ARACY to create Parenting Well Despite—a short-form documentary designed to bring research to life for policymakers, sector leaders, and the broader public.
Primary presentation
Our Strategic Approach
Bridging Insight and Emotion:
Through creative development workshops with ARACY, we identified key strategic drivers—empathy, credibility, and clarity—and aligned them with campaign goals.
Real Storytelling, Real Stakes:
The video centres around a real family, navigating complex social and health challenges with the support of a sustained home-visiting nurse. Their story gave a face to the data and grounded the program’s impact in human terms.
Multi-Platform Campaign Deployment:
Full-length video for stakeholder presentations and website
Short-form trailer optimised for LinkedIn, Instagram and social media
Open captions, branded thumbnails, and embedded calls-to-action ensured accessibility and engagement across all formats
Why It Worked
This project exemplifies how strategic video can do more than raise awareness—it can build trust, inspire action, and directly influence public investment. By aligning messaging, storytelling, and format with a clearly defined advocacy objective, we helped ARACY deliver a message that moved decision-makers and shifted the national conversation.
The Outcome
Parenting Well Despite became a cornerstone of ARACY’s advocacy. It was used in formal presentations to government stakeholders and ran as a grassroots social campaign during 2024 and 2025.
Shortly after launch, Queensland’s government announced $65.52 million in new funding to expand nurse-led home visiting services state-wide—confirming the program’s relevance and policy momentum. The government explicitly referenced the MECSH model as the basis for this rollout.
The campaign helped turn academic evidence into emotional connection—resulting in real policy outcomes and improved services for thousands of families.
“ARACY worked with the Bakery Creative Agency across 2023-24 to produce a case study video showcasing a recipient of our Sustained Nurse Home Visiting research program. This work required not only a sensitive retelling of a difficult time in our case study family’s life, but also an accessible explanation of a complex nurse-led parenting and social support program and the results of a full Randomised Controlled Trial, conducted by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.
We had never made a video like this before and had no idea where to start. The Bakery team guided us through the process with generous advice and information. They were consistently personable and warm to work with, and extremely good at their job! They established a strong and trusting relationship with our case study mother and her family, and perfectly captured her personal journey and insights into our program. The resulting video fills an important gap in our advocacy, bringing the research to life and vividly illustrating the lasting impact our program has had for families. We couldn’t be happier and have no hesitation recommending Simon and Stacey to anyone wanting creative, compelling video content.”
