Enriching youth development in ice hockey through storytelling and role modeling: the story creation process for the 1616 program

Simply participating in sport is not enough to guarantee the numerous benefits associated with involvement. Consequently, programs like 1616, an evidence-informed and practically relevant positive youth development (PYD) program, have been intentionally designed to improve the sport experience for youth, their parents, and their coaches. The 1616 program uses a unique “role modeling through storytelling” approach to communicate research-informed PYD concepts to youth ice hockey players through the stories of role models (professional ice hockey players) via short, interactive videos. Grounded in a partnership-based approach to knowledge translation (i.e., Integrated Knowledge Translation; Kothari et al., Citation2017), the video-based stories were developed in two iterative phases aligned with the knowledge creation funnel of the Knowledge to Action Framework (KTA; Graham et al., Citation2006). Phase 1 (‘knowledge synthesis’) involved identifying relevant research, selecting key concepts and story themes, determining the story format, and developing the brand voice. Phase 2 (‘knowledge product development’) focused on selecting role models with stories that exemplified selected concepts and themes, developing their story arcs, outlining the videos, drafting the scripts, and filming and editing the videos. This article describes the story creation process for the 1616 program, offering a blueprint for the development of video-based ‘role modeling through storytelling’ knowledge products for youth in sport.