City of Boroondara Maternal and Child Health Video Series

Client background

Boroondara Maternal and Child Health is a free service available to all families with children from birth to school age. The service supports parents and carers through appointments, programs and facilitated playgroups, helping families navigate the early years with care, reassurance and practical guidance.

The City of Boroondara approached Dream Engine at an early idea stage to explore the creation of a short healthcare video in Melbourne focused on maternal and child health services and how they are experienced by the local community. Dream Engine is an experience provide of Government video in Melbourne.

The challenge

Maternal and child health is a sensitive subject matter. Families often engage with these services during periods of uncertainty, vulnerability and major life change.

The council needed a video approach that could:

• Explain how Maternal and Child Health services work in a calm, human way
• Feel respectful and reassuring rather than instructional or promotional
• Speak to the local community, particularly families who had already used the service or were considering engaging with it
• Encourage uptake, especially among new and culturally diverse families

Tone was critical. The video needed to build understanding and confidence without dramatic storytelling, promotional language or oversimplification.

The approach

From the outset, the concept was deliberately simple. Dream Engine worked with the City of Boroondara to produce a series of short, interview-led videos, each approximately three minutes in length. Rather than relying on scripted messaging, the videos were built around real voices and lived experience.

Filming took place across multiple Maternal and Child Health centres to reflect the everyday environments families encounter when using the service. This helped the content feel familiar, local and grounded.

Accessibility was a requirement from the beginning. Captioning and full transcripts were produced so the videos could be shared widely and inclusively across digital channels.

To better serve culturally and linguistically diverse families, a separate Mandarin-language version of the video was created. This ensured the information was accessible and culturally appropriate for the Mandarin-speaking community.

In addition to the main videos, a suite of short cut-down edits was produced for social and digital platforms, allowing the council to share the message in smaller moments while maintaining consistency in tone and intent.

Community perspectives

One video in the series focuses exclusively on the voices of parents and carers who had engaged with the Maternal and Child Health service. Community members speak about their experiences attending appointments, participating in facilitated playgroups, and the reassurance they felt knowing support was available.

By centring lived experience, this video helps normalise engagement with the service and allows other families to hear directly from people in similar situations.

Nurse perspectives

A separate video was created to share the perspective of Maternal and Child Health nurses. In this piece, nurses explain their role, how they work with families, and the principles that guide their care.

The focus is on trust, accessibility and continuity of support, helping families understand what to expect and reinforcing the service as a welcoming, judgement-free space.

The result

The completed video series provides the City of Boroondara with a set of flexible, evergreen communication assets that:

• Explain Maternal and Child Health services through real experiences
• Build understanding and confidence within the local community
• Support inclusive communication across languages and platforms
• Can be used consistently across web, community awareness channels and social media

The primary video is embedded directly on the City of Boroondara’s Maternal and Child Health service page, where families are already seeking information and reassurance. Supporting cut-down edits extend the same message across digital and social channels, helping reinforce understanding without repetition or noise.

Rather than attempting to persuade, the videos focus on clarity, reassurance and familiarity.

Why this approach worked

For council and healthcare communication, effectiveness often comes from restraint. By keeping the concept simple, prioritising tone, and allowing community members and nurses to speak in their own words, the videos reflect the values of the Maternal and Child Health service itself.

This project is a strong example of how councils in Melbourne use video to build understanding and confidence around essential services that support people at vulnerable points in their lives.