Dialogues of strength: digital storytelling with ethnic minority youth

Ethnic minority (EM) youth in Hong Kong face unique challenges and are often viewed through a deficit-focused lens that overlooks their strengths. A dialogue-based digital storytelling (DDST) practice, developed by academic researchers and an NGO, adopts a strengths-based approach to empower EM youth. This exploratory qualitative study used thematic analysis of participants’ narratives, collected through training sessions, interviews, meetings, and sharing events over two months. Data sources included interview transcripts, published articles, and meeting notes. Findings revealed that DDST fostered core strengths among EM youth, including perseverance, cultural pride, and strong community bonds. The practice shows significant potential for empowering EM youth and contributes to discussions on applying the strengths perspective in services. However, further research with larger samples and experimental designs is needed to determine long-term impacts and explore the applicability of DDST in diverse contexts.