RESPECTFULLY – we recognise and celebrate the many cultures and intersections that exist in our community, and give particular acknowledgement to the Darug people, the traditional custodians of the unceded lands we live, work and play on. We aim to include aspects of Aboriginal culture in all our projects.
AUTHENTICALLY – we reflect the community we work in through our board, staff, facilitators, and artists, and the young people and audiences we work with. Our team is multicultural, multi-lingual, and multi-faith, with members in the LGBTIQA+, neurodiverse and disabled communities, and mental health diagnosis. Most of us are local to the area, more than half of us are CALD, and three quarters of us are under 35 yrs. We have lived experience in the topics we work in, and we seek out and work with experts for our new projects.
RESPONSIBLY – we use best practice and evidence-based processes in our program design, and partner with service providers to offer a whole-person approach. We routinely partner with health, education and social welfare providers like Headspace Bankstown and Humanity Matters, to ensure that our performances, artworks and social support are well-managed. Through these partnerships, we cross-pollinate artistic strengths of engagement, expression, joy, collaboration and connection with care methodologies, processes, evidence basis and measurable impacts of these sectors. Our staff undertake ongoing mental health care training and have qualifications or experience in education/social-youth work/psychology. We regularly make referrals to our partner network of service providers.
RESPONSIVELY – our programs are responsive to the needs and interests of the young people in our community. For our REIMAGINE research project, we interviewed our ecosystem of partners, young people, schools and youth arts organisations and services to create responsive programming for the future, and developed Elder in Residence and Youth Co-Design programs.
SUPPORTIVELY – our focus is amplifying the voices of Western Sydney’s young people. Young artists are offered guidance, mentorship and, when they are ready, opportunities to perform or exhibit, and as they advance in their careers, creative developments and workshops on the business of being an artist.
SKILLS-FOCUSED – We value transferable life skills and we train up facilitators we work with in our care-based pedagogy.
PLAYFULLY – if something is worth doing, it’s worth making it fun!
LONG-TERM ENGAGEMENT – we work with young people throughout their career and we aspire to long-term change for the individuals and communities that we work with. Outloud (formerly known as Bankstown Youth Development Service, or BYDS) has been working in Western Sydney since 1991, and we‘ve called the Bankstown Arts Centre home for the last ten years. Our award-winning program, RESPECT, has its tenth anniversary in 2023, and been delivered to more than a thousand students. Alumnus of our projects have come back as interns, lead artists, and even board members!
With EMPOWERMENT and SELF-DETERMINATION for local voices, especially those who are often silenced or marginalised.
ACCESSIBLY – prioritising the participation of people from diverse socio-economic statuses, as well as people with differing physical and neurological needs.
COURAGEOUSLY – in highlighting and discussing difficult social issues affecting our community. We’re proudly advocates for young people’s brilliance.
CONNECTED in UNITY, COLLABORATION and PLAY with our partners, participants, and audiences.
NON-HIERARCHICALLY – Outloud is a ‘teal’ organisation (Laloux 2014), where staff are encouraged to bring their whole selves and many skills and experiences to work, and the person with the most experience in each task or topic takes the lead in that area.
TAX-DEDUCTIBLY – 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.