City of Boroondara Maternal and Child Health Video Series

Client background

Boroondara Maternal and Child Health is a free service for local families with children from birth to school age. Through appointments, programs and facilitated playgroups, its nurses give parents and carers practical guidance during the early years of a child’s life.

The City of Boroondara asked Dream Engine to create a series of short videos that would help families understand the service before making contact. The project brought together our experience in healthcare video production and government video production in Melbourne.

The communication challenge

Maternal and child health can be a sensitive subject. Families may first encounter the service while adjusting to parenthood, dealing with uncertainty or looking for reassurance about their child’s development.

The videos therefore needed to do more than list services. They had to:

• explain what happens at Maternal and Child Health appointments in a calm, accessible way
• show that the service is welcoming and practical, rather than clinical or judgemental
• reflect the experiences of local parents, carers and nurses
• encourage families from different cultural and language backgrounds to engage with the service
• work across the council website, community information channels and social media

A conventional promotional treatment would have felt out of place. The tone needed to be warm and reassuring while allowing the information to remain clear.

The video strategy

Dream Engine worked with the City of Boroondara from the early concept stage. We developed a simple interview-led format built around the people who use and deliver the service.

Instead of asking presenters to recite scripted claims, we recorded parents, carers and Maternal and Child Health nurses speaking in their own words. This gave prospective service users two useful perspectives: what families experience and what nurses actually do.

Filming took place across several Maternal and Child Health centres. Showing the real environments helped make an unfamiliar service feel more approachable and gave the series a clear connection to the local community.

Production and accessibility

The core series consists of short videos of approximately three minutes. Each video has a distinct purpose, but the visual style and tone remain consistent across the set.

Accessibility was planned from the beginning rather than added at the end. We supplied captions and full transcripts so the content could be understood without sound and used across the council’s digital channels.

A separate Mandarin-language version was also produced for Mandarin-speaking families. This involved more than simply adding translated subtitles. It created a version designed to communicate the same reassuring message clearly and appropriately for that audience.

We also produced short cut-down edits for social and digital use. These gave the council smaller pieces of content for introducing the service while directing families to the fuller information on its website.

Community perspectives

One video centres on parents and carers who have used the Maternal and Child Health service. They describe attending appointments and facilitated playgroups, receiving practical support and knowing help was available when they needed it.

Hearing directly from other families helps make the service easier to understand. It also gives prospective users a more realistic sense of what taking part feels like.

Nurse perspectives

A companion video features Maternal and Child Health nurses explaining their role, how appointments work and the principles that guide their care.

This perspective answers practical questions while reinforcing that families can expect accessible, ongoing support in a welcoming environment.

The result

The City of Boroondara received a flexible library of communication assets rather than a single video. The completed series:

• explains the service through real experiences from families and nurses
• supports inclusive communication through captions, transcripts and a Mandarin-language version
• provides full-length videos for families actively researching the service
• includes shorter edits for awareness and social media
• can continue to be used across web and community communication channels

The primary video is embedded on the City of Boroondara Maternal and Child Health service page, placing it where families are already looking for information.

Why the approach worked

The strength of the series comes from restraint. Real locations make the service familiar, short interviews keep the information manageable, and the voices of families and nurses provide credibility without turning the videos into advertisements.

It is a practical example of how Melbourne councils can use video to explain an essential service and build confidence among the people it supports.