About Outloud

Outloud is an intersectional, CALD-focused social impact arts organisation that creates genuine, meaningful, inspiring opportunities for young people in Western Sydney.

Our award-winning projects address nationally relevant issues that are affecting young people in Western Sydney. We use community-embedded contemporary arts to drive positive change for young people with best practice, evidence-based programs that are fun and inspiring. We specialise in early-intervention harm-reduction that celebrates strengths and amplifies socially-marginalised young people’s thoughts and ideas. We put a spotlight on global issues that are affecting our local young people and amplify their thoughts and ideas. We elevate skills and confidence and aim to build self-efficacy and social cohesion.

We work with young people who are either emerging leaders, at risk, or looking for a way to make a difference. We connect our participants to mentors, their peers, role models and industry contacts. We work with them to create art that challenges, inspires, questions and makes an impact on the participants, their audiences, and hopefully – their wider community. We amplify local voices to create profound and lasting change in South-West Sydney.

Formally known as BYDS – Bankstown Youth Development Service, we’ve been working in Western Sydney since 1991, and have worked with thousands of young people. We can name generations of artists who have built their career after engaging with us.

OUR AREA

Canterbury-Bankstown is the biggest Local Government Area in NSW. It is one of Australia’s most linguistically and religiously diverse areas, with pockets of severe disadvantage: a true global microcosm.

Our community represents 120+ nationalities and speaks over 200 languages. 60% of people who live here speak a language other than English at home. The three largest ancestries are Lebanese, Vietnamese and Australian. 47% of people were born overseas, and 16% have arrived in Australia after 2011. 21% of households are couples with young children (Australian Census 2016). There are also a bunch of negative stereotypes about Western Sydney that we want to turn upside down by giving young people the opportunity and self-determination to tell their stories in the way that they want them to be told.

OUR VALUES

Outloud will, through its projects, its interaction with community and in all our actions:

RESPECT, recognise and celebrate the multitude of cultural diversity that exists in our community, including the traditional custodians of the unceded lands we live, work and play on.

Create EMPOWERMENT AND SELF-DETERMINATION for local voices, especially those who are often silenced or marginalised, and acknowledge the inequality of the society that we live in.

Integrate ACCESSIBLE participation to people from diverse socio-economic statuses.

Be COURAGEOUS in highlighting and discussing difficult social issues affecting our community.

Foster EMPATHY and awareness for the multi-layered ways that invisible social forces and power structures affect our young people.

Model UNITY, COLLABORATION AND PLAY with our partners, participants and audiences.

Strive for high IMPACT and long-term change for the individuals and communities that we work with.

We value diversity and strongly believe that a variety of skills, backgrounds and experiences strengthens Outloud as an organisation. The leadership team of Outloud is committed to ensuring the diversity of Outloud’s audience is reflected in the composition of the Management Committee, staff and project roles, and to integrate inclusive thinking and behaviours into the way the organisation operates. As part of its mission, Outloud is committed to addressing the barriers that make it harder for some communities to have their voices heard. We believe that championing diversity involves challenging the social inequalities and hierarchies that enable unfair treatment and discrimination. We recognise that promoting diversity involves challenging the social inequalities and hierarchies that enable unfair treatment, as well as celebrating the impact diversity makes in enriching the organisation and the communities it serves.

Outloud is a not-for-profit organisation, and is on the Federal Government’s Cultural Organisations register. We have Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR 1) status, so donations to these programs that change young people’s lives are also tax-deductible.