Neighbourhood Stories St Marys is a groundbreaking initiative, demonstrating an integrated approach to cultural policy implementation and innovative creative community engagement. It won a Local Government and Shires Cultural Award in 2011.

There’s nothing quite like community-led research and stories to inform your opinion of a place. Through text, stills and videos – all viewable in an online, interactive map – residents of St Marys in Sydney’s West shared a variety of stories for both their own community and outsiders to glimpse a slice of life in St Marys.

CuriousWorks partnered with Penrith City Council’s Neighbourhood Renewal Program on the Neighbourhood Stories initiative. The goal: empower local residents to tell their stories and make positive contributions to their neighbourhood.

Focussing on 6 local residents and 3 Penrith City Council staff, CuriousWorks ran training workshops where the participants would learn videomaking and web publishing skills.

Most importantly, the stories and research that the participants uncovered would inform a “Neighbourhood Action Plan”, a formal document that would be presented to council to enact actual change.