Authentic storytelling in service of impact
Bex De Prospo joined EHF in Cohort 2 as a co-founder of an ambitious business called Anteater, aiming to mainstream low emission insect proteins in our diet, starting with high end restaurants.
This startup evolved over three years and has since shut down with the founders moving onto other projects. In life after Anteater, Bex bounced back and set up a place to stand to continue her work with Authentic Storytelling.Being a freelancer gave her the opportunity to support many projects in many ways and get to the heart of where she can create the most impact with her unique skills. The work is varied and it normally involves translating complexity into accessible, engaging ideas.
“Articulating vision is the key thing that ties my work together. Helping people articulate their vision, their mission, their business and their value in a way that will help them survive and thrive.”
This is a critical and over overlooked role in an innovation eco-system. The role of the facilitator, storyteller and activator. To be able to help people take a step back, see themselves and their work differently, and articulate their vision, mission, strengths and products differently so others can see their role in it. It is through this process that many unlikely projects can start, or grow in new directions to take on a life of their own.
This is precisely what happened with her role in helping to launch the Drinkable Rivers initiative in Christchurch. Drinkable Rivers is an initiative built on a moonshot play on words and vision to turn one of the most toxic rivers in the country (the Ōtākaro/Avon) into a beautiful community asset and champion a more ambitious conversation about water quality in New Zealand.Bex became the driving force of the project, turning the idea into action with Christchurch connections Anake Goodall from Seed The Change | He Kākano Hāpai and Michael Mayell, the original instigator of the idea.
Since launch in 2019 she put her wide skillset to use to manifest this vision; from distilling the idea, creating messaging and digital communication infrastructure to building strategic networks with schools and local government to establish operations. The project has grown quickly from an idea on billboards to using real time water quality data and storytelling to give everyone new insight into how urban water quality is affected and more importantly, on their role to play in improving it.
As a storyteller with no scientific background in water quality or sensor technology Bex is clear on the key lever for impact in this work.
We are storytellers. We have this real time water quality data, the most value we can add is to give that data context to empower and enable people in communities so they can be a part of a freshwater solution.We give the rivers a voice. We give the rivers a voice by telling everyone else what they are telling us. Water quality is a particularly nuanced and complex issue in Christchurch. There are strong narrative flaws and wide assumptions in the rural / urban divide and where the root causes of the problems lie. The team recently released a video about the interconnected history of the river.
“Urban water quality is by its very nature an interconnected and complex issue. We have to acknowledge that it is complicated in order to understand the problem enough to be able to ‘get beyond the absolutist view of where the problem lies, to enable people to be able to understand their role and make a difference.”
Having launched the first sensor and pilot programme with a local school Bex recognises that Drinkable Rivers is starting to look more and more like an impact driven startup.
“We have one sensor in one river, and we want to expand this. We are working with hardware designers and water quality experts to look at our device options to ensure we are measuring the most effective things in the most efficient ways. We look at our resources, we work with our collaborators, we create a roadmap and we take steps forwards.”
Drinkable Rivers, like every non-profit is limited by it’s fundraising cycle and mostly supported by it’s founding partners. As a project manager Bex has a clear goal towards a self sustaining, replicable model and making herself redundant. The road to get there begins with leveraging the strengths of the community, not just fundraising but informational resources and expertise.“Time is the most critical resource. When a conversation with the right person with the right expertise can short circuit hours, or weeks of work sometimes - people knowing what we are doing and how they can help can be critical.”
Because urban water quality is an issue that connects everything, the work covers local government policies, town planning and budgeting cycles, infrastructure priorities and developments. Hardware manufacturing and sensor technology is growing so rapidly that understanding what is possible and most effective to invest in is critical to get the most effective data. Data processing, and analytics, understanding how we make sense of this and turn the data into useful insights also requires specialised knowledge. As is understanding the politics and cultural narratives around the rural / urban divide so the mission and organisation can be best positioned to create impact.
All of these challenges can be supported by connections with the right people, both in New Zealand and globally. The EHF community has been, and can continue to be useful in this way.
Bex continues her work both driving forwards Drinkable Rivers and as a curious generalist, storyteller and entrepreneur supporting a wide range of impact focussed businesses at authenticstorytelling.co.nz.
Journey with us
Impact is a journey and it doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It takes a group of inspired, committed, and informed individuals to get a world-changing idea off the ground. You can help amplify EHF Fellow impact as they work to develop solutions to some of humanity’s biggest problems. Here is how you can join us in this work as we journey together on a path to a better world:
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