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Social Impact
PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION
Milk Crate Theatre is the leading arts organisation in Australia working in the unique intersection of the arts, homelessness, mental health, and disability, providing professional development pathways and opportunities for collaborative artists to engage in creative practices as both performers and theatre and film creators of works.
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We bring communities together and work in a strengths-based approach for a positive impact on wellbeing. We work within the Social Model of Disability, believe in the dignity of risk, and facilitate programs that are not based on respite or therapy but have a firm focus on the arts to enable and build capacity. Our programs are facilitated by Sydney's most exciting contemporary practitioners, who possess the insight and competency to challenge and inspire our sommunity to work in expansive new ways. They are supported by Social Workers. They can provide personal support and connect people with other services in the community where needed. Professional and Collaborative Artists work together to explore social themes from an arts base – we do not ask people to go into typecast or to tell their personal stories of trauma to inform the depth of the work we produce. We are diligent about the avoidance of rehashing, retelling or re-traumatisation. All Milk Crate Theatre programs are designed in line with our Theory of Change. We utilise a Social Impact Measurement framework to measure our programs' impact across a number of domains of overall wellbeing.
felt more confident and felt a better ability to connect socially with their peers had developed new performance-based and life skills
said that workshops had supported them to make changes in their lives
INFLUENCING CHANGE
Our works share stories that need to be told and offer a unique and original perspective not often heard in the mainstream cultural landscape. All works are created with and by our Collaborative Artists, and the impact on audiences is often profound and lasting. Our performances engage a wide variety of non-traditional audiences. We continue to look for opportunities to develop new audiences and engage key decision-makers, providing participants with an advocacy platform to change perceptions and decisions around what it means to be homeless.
Image Credit: The cast of Natural Order in development, 2019. Photo by Lisa Walton.
