What is the 5000 Days Project and how did it begin?
Inspired by the roughly 5000 Days it takes to go through school, the 5000 Days Project started in 2001 as a longitudinal documentary about growing up. It took a 180 degree turn when 9/11 demonstrated a deep need in children to better process the world around them and find their place in it. With the help of brain scientists, educators, sociologists, counselors, developmental psychologists and caring parents, the focus turned to arming children with the power of their own story.
Personal Story Mentoring Program FAQs
The following are FAQs regarding the Personal Story Mentoring Program.
What is this exactly?
The 5000 Days Project involves an annual, in-depth, filmed interview (20-75 minutes long depending on the child) asking a series of age appropriate, key life questions designed to build self awareness, empathy, perspective, integrity and resilience. The filmed material becomes a priceless, entirely unique, time capsule of the child growing up.
What are the questions?
The Project does not publish the questions because authenticity and spontaneity are essential and we do not want the child rehearsing. That said, the questions and methodology are based on brain science and have been tested across nearly 6000 in-the-field interviews and over 300,000 automated interview questions with youth across six continents. They center around the child’s longings and fears and are designed to grow Emotional Intelligence.
What is the role of parents?
Beyond co-financing their child’s participation with the Project, Parents/Guardians are invited annually to provide a brief background on their child’s dreams, ambitions, struggles and fears—and/or any other subjects that might be helpful for the mentor to address. They are also encouraged to safely store their pictures and video footage of the child in a cloud storage location provided by the Project for possible use in an eventual film.
What are the possible benefits of the project?
(a) the creation of a personal time capsule (b) Building self awareness, perspective, patience, confidence, resilience and overall emotional intelligence (c) the creation of an entirely unique personal film that can be used for university and job applications as well as a personal record for future parents.
Why is there an audition?
It is a mutual audition. Because parents and the 5000 Days Project share in the cost the project and eventual films, we want to make sure the child is articulate, honest, open and wanting to do it. Concurrently, we want the child to enjoy the experience and benefit from each session.
Is this traditional therapy?
No. Traditional therapy, while potentially helpful for all, is especially vital for youth with serious mental health issues. Private Story Mentoring fills the gap for kids who neither need nor desire traditional therapy but can gain from discovering themselves through their own story. It involves asking the right questions in the right order in the setting at the right time to help the individual find the right answers for themselves. It involves the sharing of wisdom and the building of a trusting relationship with continuity over time.
What are the terms of privacy?
Parents sign up for this project knowing the value of providing a safe place where their kids can express their inner most feelings without fear or judgement. The mere exercise of verbalizing one’s feelings has been shown to tame the amygdala and help individuals act more from their prefrontal cortex where their reasoning and verbal skills lie. Trusting the privacy of this material is a key reason this works for kids. All of that said, kids are told up front that should they say something that gives their mentor concern over their safety or someone else’s, we will endeavor to get them help. In select circumstances, and with the permission of the child, the mentor may suggest sharing something with another party if they feel it will be helpful. However, the purpose of the exercise is to empower the child to fight their own battles whenever possible.
What about Data Privacy?
Because the 5000 Days Project wishes to constantly improve its method as well as help shed light on the science of growing up, it reserves to right to anonymously mine the data it collects for that and related purposes. At no time, however, will that process reveal names or identities of the participants.
Where is this material held and how secure is it?
The data is held either in our secure cloud storage and/or in private servers inaccessible to the public. All standard precautions are taken against potential breach.
What do parents get to see on an annual basis?
Very little. Participating parents have signed their children up because they know the value of the child having a safe place to express what they feel. Parents do receive 2-3 screen grabs from the footage and the mentor may choose to share, with the child’s permission, some of the general themes covered in the session.
Who owns what?
Each child owns the rights to their own story which is why their footage is held safely for them until their age of majority. The 5000 Days Project owns the footage. Neither party can do anything other than fulfill their contractual obligations without the written consent of the other?
Will a child’s material ever be used in a documentary?
Only with the written consent of the parents and child up to the age of majority and the young adult after that. The films that have been released to the public have been purposely shared by those participants based on a desire to help other kids.
What about Child Safety?—
All mentors have been background checked and cleared to work with children. To protect all parties, the camera and sound records from the point the child enters the room to the point they exit.
What is included in the annual fee?
The annual fee includes conducting and filming the annual interview, the collection of a limited amount of B-roll when possible, the safe-storage and cataloguing of the digital material, and the set-up and follow-up with parents as described above.
What does the eventual, optional film cost parents?
The current cost of a film made upon the age of majority is $12,000 of which parents are expected to pay half($6000). This cost might rise over the years but parents can lock in their current contribution by making a $250 annual, non-refundable deposit.
Video Journal Kiosk FAQs
The following are FAQs for schools and orgs using the Video Journal Kiosk.
NOTE: Due to the 2020 Pandemic, the Video Journal Kiosk is only being offered to select schools.
The new at-home web app will be available to all Summer 2021
Where are the Video Journal interviews stored and how can we access them?
They are stored using high security Amazon S3 servers, the same ones that businesses use to store sensitive information. They can be accessed by administrators or individuals, provided that has been stipulated in a contract. We strongly suggest that no-one (including The 5000 Days Project team) be able to view the videos, so that the students have total confidence in the security of their answers, thus allowing them to be completely honest and open.
Full Details on File Security→
What are the mechanisms used to store, archive and retrieve the video footage?
Files are offloaded via secure Wi-Fi connection to a secure Amazon Web Services S3 account immediately after recording. Files are offloaded in “slices” and reassembled on the server side, then encrypted, so there is zero risk of viewable video being intercepted via Internet hacking. Only The 5000 Days Project account administrator has access to the AWS S3 archives. When time comes for the conclusion of the Project, or for files to be transferred to the organization’s data servers, the archives may be accessed via The 5000 Days Project proprietary web-based download service using a password which will be created specifically for that purpose (storyQ.me).
Where is the footage physically stored?
Amazon’s S3 Cloud servers are distributed and mirrored for rendundancy, so we cannot say where any particular file is physically stored at any particular time. This provides an added level of security.
Who has access to the footage?
The 5000 Days Project Director of Operations Greg Wright is the Project account administrator, and only he has access to the footage. File archives listings are monitored to ensure all files have been properly transferred, but video files themselves are only periodically spot-checked to ensure that audio and video are being properly recorded. No more than 1 or 2 seconds of any particular file is spot-checked.
For complete details on file security, see: http://aws.amazon.com/security/
What access controls and additional mechanisms are in place to protect the privacy of students? What audit controls are in place to monitor unauthorized access?
Also see: http://aws.amazon.com/security/