At the heart of the company’s approach is a simple idea:

“It’s much harder to hurt someone if you know their story.”

By placing story at the core of the work, participants begin from a position of strength. Everyone has the unique gift of their life experience to share. Big hART projects are based around an exchange, rather than welfare.

Our projects are long-term, running for a minimum of 150 weeks. It takes time to turn communities around, build skills, and make our presence felt in arts and policy arenas. But we don't overstay our welcome in communities. As effective change agents, we refuse to make ourselves indispensable forever. Big hART is there to build skills in the community, not dependence.

Big hART's approach creates opportunities at four levels of society:

Individuals caught on the “outside” of society gain the skills to tell their story powerfully, and then utilise these newfound skills to participate more fully in their community. Individuals begin to change the social trajectory of their lives.

Communities are motivated by the excellence of the stories to create new and sustained opportunities for those on the margins to participate more fully in education, employment and society.

Nationally findings from the projects are championed at a government level and in the media to help bring about sustained change and better policy.

Socially we are all given the opportunity to increase our understanding of the issues faced by marginalised communities through exposure to new stories in the media and at festivals.