B-HART

02/04/2026

Human rights should be felt—not just written.

At the Human Rights Day Symposium 2025 hosted by B-HART, we explored what it really means to bring human rights into everyday practice.

It’s not just about policies or frameworks.
It’s about walking alongside people, listening, and creating real space for choice and control.

Because real impact happens when:
✨ We build with people, not just for them
✨ We focus on relationships, not just routines
✨ We ask: How does this improve someone’s life?

This is what human rights in action looks like.

23/03/2026

Together, we are building the confidence to claim rights and the practice to uphold them.s to begin shaping the real resources for the *How to Claim Your Human Rights* Project.

It was a powerful day.
People showed up ready to contribute, to listen, and to build something that truly matters.

Peer leaders shared lived experience with courage and clarity.
Coordinators and partners brought deep community insight.
The trust and compassion in the room allowed us to explore complex topics with care.

We were especially grateful to welcome partners from DBV who travelled from Melbourne, and a peer leader who joined us from Queensland, thank you for making the journey.

One participant described it as the best co-design session they had ever participated in. There was a strong sense that this work will make a real difference.

Clear themes emerged:
Before someone feels confident enough to speak up, they need more than information.
They need inner skills, practical language, an understanding of processes, and ways to navigate power dynamics — across services, support relationships, and even within families.

These insights are now shaping the first resources moving into development.

Resource development begins soon.

We also shared an exciting update with partners about the next stage of B-HART’s broader work to strengthen human rights practice across services. More will be shared soon.

Thank you to everyone who helped turn conversation into action.

Together, we are building the confidence to claim rights, and the practice to uphold them.

19/03/2026

🍁 Autumn has arrived, and we’re honoured to be featured in the latest issue of Source Co Magazine.

Thank you to the Source team for highlighting the Human Rights Symposium 2025, hosted by B-HART. This event brought together leaders, families, advocates, and people with disability to move beyond conversation and into action placing human rights at the centre of disability services in Australia.

At B-Hart we believe human rights are not just principles to discuss; they are practices to live. This feature reflects a shared commitment across the sector to build a future grounded in dignity, autonomy, and inclusion.

We’re grateful to be part of this important conversation.

You can explore the full Source magazine here:
https://ap1.hubs.ly/y0HvPS0

20/02/2026

Last night, Community Bridging Services (CBS) Inc. . hosted The Art of Human Rights exhibition at Bearded Dragon Gallery and kindly invited .official to attend the opening night.

We were honoured to have Michaela Banks speak briefly and share insights about the Claim Your Human Rights Project. With Human Rights Commissioner Lorraine Finlay in attendance, it was a valuable opportunity to connect and discuss the important and inspiring work being delivered through this project.

B-HART is proud to continuously support . On the night, we purchased two pieces of artwork as B-HART always seek to support, acknowledge, and elevate the powerful voices and lived experiences of artists within our community.

Art plays a vital role in advancing human rights conversations in meaningful and accessible ways.

Thank you, Freddie Brincat, Ada Caruana, Joyce Wang and Craig Love for the kind invitation, and to BDG for creating a space where human rights, lived experience, and strength are expressed so powerfully.

📸 Photos: Pouya Farbod, and Michaela Banks with the purchased artworks.

19/02/2026

We are now at the next stage of the How to Claim Your Human Rights Project.

Services need to evolve. Rights need to show up in everyday interactions, not just in policy documents. Through our training and leadership work, we are focused on translating human rights into practice across the disability sector.

At the same time, we are listening carefully to people with lived experience.

We have just released a short public to help shape the practical resources we develop next. We want to hear from people with disabilities, families and carers about what would genuinely help in everyday life.

If you work in the sector, please consider sharing this within your networks.

Survey closes Monday, 9 March at 9:00 am (Adelaide time).

Complete the survey here (instagram bio)
https://lnkd.in/gd4X_ThM

We are also offering alternative formats, including phone and voice response options, to ensure broader access.

10/02/2026

The ripple effect of triggers

Triggers can be sensory, emotional, social or systemic. They might arise from a crowded space, an inaccessible system or even a past experience. For individuals with disabilities, these triggers are not minor inconveniences – they can profoundly affect well-being, independence and participation. Recognising and addressing these triggers is not only an act of empathy but also a commitment to the principles of inclusion and respect.

Understanding triggers is about more than identifying what causes discomfort – it’s about creating environments, systems and relationships that are intentionally supportive and inclusive. By addressing triggers proactively, we align our practices with the human rights principles.



These principles remind us that every person deserves a life where they feel safe, empowered and able to contribute.

27/01/2026

Deafblind Victoria, a partner in the How to Claim Your Human Rights project led by .official , was recently featured on ABC, with Nas Campanella sharing the story of Jael Espinal, who is leading co-design sessions for the project.

Jael is a project manager at Deafblind Victoria and a Deafblind advocate. Her experience reflects the diversity within Deafblind communities and the expertise people with lived experience bring to leadership, co-design and systems change.

In the How to Claim Your Human Rights project, the diversity of partner organisations is central to the integrity of the work. Deafblind Victoria’s leadership, including Jael’s role, ensures co-design is grounded in Deafblind knowledge, communication practices and real-world experience, rather than assumptions made from the outside.

Through this project, Deafblind Victoria is leading co-design and shaping content, approaches and priorities based on lived experience. This is human rights-based co-design in practice, people with lived experience shaping the systems that affect their lives.

Watch the ABC story by Nas Campanella: https://deafblindvictoria.com/2026/01/22/media-appearance-dbv-members-featured-on-abc/
Project proudly funded by the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.

16/01/2026

A powerful shift is being proposed in the new Mental Health and Wellbeing Bill.

In this short clip from our Human Rights Day Symposium , Dr John Brayley explains one simple sentence in the Bill that could have a far-reaching impact.

“A decision of a person with a mental illness made using supported decision making will be taken to be a decision of the person.”

This matters because it moves us away from substitute decision-making and challenges long-held ideas about capacity. It places responsibility on systems, services, families, and professionals to support people to make their own decisions, rather than stepping in and making decisions for them.

If embedded well, this change could strengthen rights, reshape practice, and influence other decision-making legislation over time.
The Bill is currently open for consultation. This is a critical opportunity for people with lived experience, families, advocates, services, and leaders to have their say.

Watch the clip, reflect on what this could mean in practice, and take part in the consultation process. -HART will be contributing to the consultation process, so if you have a story or experience that you would like us to include, please reach out to us.

Consultation is open now via
YourSAy: https://yoursay.sa.gov.au/mental-health-and-wellbeing-bill

Real change happens when we engage early and help shape the systems that affect people’s lives.

16/01/2026

A powerful shift is being proposed in the new Mental Health and Wellbeing Bill.

In this short clip from our Human Rights Day Symposium , Dr John Brayley explains one simple sentence in the Bill that could have a far-reaching impact.

"A decision of a person with a mental illness made using supported decision making will be taken to be a decision of the person."

This matters because it moves us away from substitute decision-making and challenges long-held ideas about capacity. It places responsibility on systems, services, families, and professionals to support people to make their own decisions, rather than stepping in and making decisions for them.

If embedded well, this change could strengthen rights, reshape practice, and influence other decision-making legislation over time.
The Bill is currently open for consultation. This is a critical opportunity for people with lived experience, families, advocates, services, and leaders to have their say.

Watch the clip, reflect on what this could mean in practice, and take part in the consultation process. -HART will be contributing to the consultation process, so if you have a story or experience that you would like us to include, please reach out to us.

Consultation is open now via
YourSAy: https://yoursay.sa.gov.au/mental-health-and-wellbeing-bill

Real change happens when we engage early and help shape the systems that affect people’s lives.

19/12/2025

Lived experience. Accountability. Hope. And the quiet determination to make human rights real in everyday life.

We watched this video together in the office and there were goosebumps, and a few tears. This captures the voices, courage, and leadership of the speakers who shared so openly at our Human Rights Day Symposium.

Human rights are not abstract ideas. They are felt in the stories people are brave enough to tell, and in the leadership choices we make every day.

Change happens when we listen, and then act.

19/12/2025

What does it really mean to make human rights real in everyday practice?

Our morning panel conversation at the Human Rights Day Symposium went straight to the gap many people with disability still experience between policy and lived reality.

Across health, employment, education, youth advocacy, the arts, and disability services, panellists spoke honestly about both the barriers that persist and the breakthroughs beginning to emerge.

In education, Skye Kakoschke-Moore highlighted how students with disability are still too often positioned as passive rather than capable, reminding us that “it is so important that schools view students with disability as learners, not just passive recipients of information.”

In health, Dr John Brayley pointed to an important shift in the draft Mental Health and Wellbeing Bill, noting that “a decision made using supported decision making is the decision of the person themselves,” a clear step forward that now needs to be embedded in practice.

From an employment perspective, Peter Bacon MDEA reframed exclusion entirely, stating that “when employers are not employing people with disability, they are acting against their own economic self interest.”

Together, these reflections reinforced that autonomy is not theoretical. It shows up when rights lead the way, when decision making is shared, and when systems are designed to respect people as experts in their own lives.

Over the coming weeks, we will continue to explore the themes raised across the day, including lived experience leadership, arts and culture, co-design, and what meaningful action looks like in 2026.

Bold, achievable change is possible, if we are willing to act.



Image 1: 5 panellists, including 2 women and 3 men, and a female facilitator sitting on a stage speaking facing an audience.
Image 2: A female panellist with blonde hair and a black dress speaking, a man in a suit is next to her.
Image 3: A male panellist in a suit is speaking, and the male and female panellists on either side are listening.
Image 4: A male panellist in a pale shirt is speaking and a woman and man on either side are listening.

10/12/2025