Ending the epidemic of isolation

“We are made for relationships, we are made for connection,” says psychologist, Collett Smart. “Being social is so much a part of what feeds our wellbeing. And when we don’t have connection, we end up lonely.”

Collett is joined by mental health author and speaker, Graeme Cowan, and Hannah Gair, founder of StrongerHERside podcast, to explore the importance of intentional community connection.

Sense of connection

Quoting a recent Beyond Blue survey on how Australians view their wellbeing, Collett shares that although around 30% of Australians say that their wellbeing is excellent as a result of their sense of connection, this number is lower today compared to what it was following the same survey in 2022.

Among the 18-24-year-old age group, half of those surveyed not only said they felt lonely but also felt shame about their loneliness. And having wrongly concluded that their loneliness made them different to their peers, Collett explains, their assumption has the effect of compounding their sense of isolation even further.

Physical wellbeing

Graeme adds that, in addition to an impact on our mental health, our lack of connection can also have a significant negative effect on our physical wellbeing.

“When people feel disconnected and lonely, it’s been shown that it has the same health effect as smoking fifteen cigarettes per day.”

Ultimately, Graeme says, community is about satisfying a fundamental need to belong. He shares his own personal experience of community with other like-minded people who meet once a month and have been doing so consistently – not only enjoying the common interest that brought them together in the first place but supporting each in life as well.

“It’s been going for twenty-five years,” Graeme explains, “and the reason is that sense of community, that bonding. And over that period of time, members have been through divorce, bankruptcy and even death. But they (the group’s gatherings) are a consistent thing that happen every month where you feel you belong.”

Seasons of life changes

Hannah shares that it can also sometimes happen that our needs for community connection can change throughout the seasons of life. As a mum of a child living with a disability, Hannah highlights the importance of taking the time to intentionally look for the right connections for whatever stage or situation you find yourself.

“If you look at statistics for mothers who are raising children with disability, it varies between 60-80% of mothers actually feel isolated, and with isolation, can come a feeling of hopelessness and disconnectedness … it’s super-critical that community is paramount … paramount to getting through that journey.”

What is the best way to find the right community for you?

Collett summarises that our two simplest answers are to either join the community that appeals to us, or, if it doesn’t yet exist, start your own.

“Just put it out there,” Collett encourages, “that you would meet people in a public place; in a coffee shop, so that you’re safe about it. Meet people, because there are other people who are desperate for community, and they’re just waiting for someone to put their hand up and say, ‘Let’s start something!’”

Article supplied with thanks to Helping Hands TV.

About the Author: Helping Hands is an Australian produced TV program that airs on 9GEM, Channel 9 and 9NOW, and showcases people and organisations who make the world a better place.

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It starts with a listening ear.

It’s not only the ‘needy’ in our community who benefit from a helping hand. We all need help from time to time, and it can also do us good to be the help that someone else needs, but what is the best way to extend a hand of friendship?

Listening is the best place to start!

CEO of Wayside Chapel, Jon Owen; CEO of Entrepreneurial and Small Business Women Australia, Amanda Rose; and aged care chaplain, Jenny Blok, discuss what it means to lend a helping hand.

Amanda explains that the best helping hand is the one that comes from the heart and goes unseen.

She says that a helping hand is being there when no one else is. People can fuss over someone who has had an accident or done well in business, but when times are tough, often those initial ‘helpers’ are nowhere to be seen. That’s the time to step in privately and give a helping hand.

Jenny adds to this, drawing on her experience in the aged care sector where, she says, offering a helping hand to the elderly is the same as any other stage in life. She emphasises the importance of listening first.

“I think we need to be asking permission as well because we can step in thinking that this person needs us … (but) they’re quite capable of doing things themselves! We don’t want to take away their independence.”

Jon agrees and shares some practical advice he gives to volunteers when they first come to lend a helping hand at Wayside Chapel.

“People just need you to love them … so bring a fresh pair of socks. The moment someone is sharing with you about what it’s like to sleep rough and you’re tempted to download your wisdom, take that fresh pair of socks and shove them in your mouth and just listen.”

Article supplied with thanks to Helping Hands TV.

About the Author: Helping Hands is an Australian produced TV program that airs on 9GEM, Channel 9 and 9NOW, and showcases people and organisations who make the world a better place.

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How finding the right community can help you thrive.

“You can unite over negative things,” says youth worker and mentor, Nathan Brewer, “but if you unite over a healthy thing like sport, or a really positive thing like helping others … it’s so good, and you see people come to life.”

Nathan and Michaela Chanmugam, Marketing and Communications Manager at Samaritan’s Purse, discuss the kind of communities that make a difference.

Community for Young People

Nathan speaks from his many years of experience working with young people to help them thrive. He is passionate to see them create healthy habits and strong pathways for their future, and he knows these things extend significantly from the benefits they see when connected to community.

“The three key things young people want most are purpose, belonging and identity. When you get into a community, you get a chance to do all three, because often a community will be united around a purpose … you belong to a group and can begin to form an identity in that,” Nathan explains.

Community Through Radio

Young people are not the only ones to discover these positive outcomes of being part of a community. And being part of a thriving, purposeful community is a core need we all share.

“(Vision) has over 750 transmitters across the country, so we’re in lots of communities – lots of small places, lots of big capital cities. Throughout all of those places, it’s really about individuals and connecting them,” Fel says.

She shares the example of John, who listened to Vision while isolated and lonely in prison. To him, switching on the radio was like a friend walking into his cell, creating the feeling of community in the most unlikely of places, and helping him cope through a difficult time.

Community Through Volunteering

Similarly, Michaela sees community making a difference through the work of Samaritan’s Purse, both for the volunteers who give their time and energy in the places where they work, and also to those in disaster zones who benefit from the outreaches of Samaritan’s Purse efforts.

“Samaritan’s Purse is an international humanitarian aid organisation … If a disaster strikes, we have people across the world who will mobilise and help communities that are in need.”

Michaela gives an example of the flooding disaster that impacted Taree on the mid-north coast of NSW, where volunteers, who may not have seen each other in years, came together during the day to help those who needed it, and at night, shared a meal and enjoyed each other’s company as if no time had passed at all since they last saw each other.

“It does bond a community (when they) do something important that makes a difference. And to do it with others, you see people thrive, and you see community thrive,” Nathan summarises. “It sounds strange, but to give people the opportunities to pour themselves out for others is a beautiful thing.”

Article supplied with thanks to Helping Hands TV.

About the Author: Helping Hands is an Australian produced TV program that airs on 9GEM, Channel 9 and 9NOW, and showcases people and organisations who make the world a better place.

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What domestic and family violence survivors need most is a friend who will listen, believe them, and support them.

When it comes to breaking the cycle of domestic and family violence, small acts of support make a powerful difference.

Simply listening and believing a victim’s story, and offering practical help, could be the lifeline that helps someone break free, even saving their life.

Lilly McKeich is a National Domestic and Family Violence Specialist with the Salvation Army, which helps more than 10,000 people a year in situations of violence.

Lilly says that what victims need most, is to be heard.

“The most powerful thing you can do is definitely listen and believe someone,” she says. “[Because] situations of abuse are so often characterised by silencing and by isolation.”

It’s also vital to respect a victim’s choices, rather than ‘taking charge’.

“Don’t try to rescue someone [or] try to engage the [perpetrator],” says Lilly. “Respect that someone is an expert in their own situation…don’t interrogate them or tell them to leave or anything like that. You can support someone to access a service. Small acts like that can be a real game changer.”

Halting Disrespect Before it Becomes Violent

Working to bring change from another angle is Dave Kramer, ambassador for Small Steps for Hannah. Dave founded the HALT Program, which teaches high-school students about respectful relationships. He’s on a mission to stop disrespect in its tracks.

“Our prevention programs are about the context around violence,” Dave says.

“[We teach people that] we can actually show up as friends, family members, colleagues or even peers in school. [We can] show up at that point of disrespect, and prevent it from getting to the point of abuse.”

The Power of an Act of Kindness

Stacy Jane is a domestic abuse survivor. She fled her partner in the UK, and was brutally attacked when trying to retrieve personal belongings from her home.

She later established Escabags, an Australian charity that provides free escape bags for abuse victims.

“We know that the most lethal time is when a victim is trying to escape, because the perpetrator knows that they’ve lost all control,” Stacy explains. “[Escabags provides] that practical solution… so that they don’t have to go back into the family home.”

What finally helped Stacy to leave her partner, was the kindness of friends who were willing to listen and support.

“Those people would have been well within their right to say, ‘it’s none of our business’… however [they didn’t]. My story is about the power of a random act of kindness… and the ripple effect that that can then go on to have.”

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence or distress, please call 1800 RESPECT, or Lifeline: 13 11 14.

Article supplied with thanks to Helping Hands TV.

About the Author: Helping Hands is an Australian produced TV program that airs on 9GEM, Channel 9 and 9NOW, and showcases people and organisations who make the world a better place.

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Turning up the volume on positivity

“If we all believed that just bringing our little piece, whatever it is, could make a difference, it really does have a really positive impact,” says Joce Goto, Chief Operations Officer at giving App, Charitabl.

Joce is joined by Mark Jones, Chief Storyteller at the ImpactInstitute; and Max Jeganathan, former advisor to Federal Government, to speak about how we can both grasp and wield the power of positive influence.

Negative Bias

It’s almost as if we’re wired to be negative, suggests Max, whose vast experience in politics, as a lawyer, and now as a social commentator, has given him ample opportunity to observe our “negativity bias”. He cites the interesting fact that negativity works in domains like X (formerly Twitter) where posts are twenty percent more likely to be retweeted if they are overtly negative.

How can we equip ourselves to not only quieten the influence of negativity, but to raise the volume on the positive?

Max says the answer is found in our mindset.

“Two simple rules that I like to have in place are that; (1.) things are never as bad as they seem, and secondly, even amidst the negativity, there’s always something we can do. There’s always something constructive, something positive we can do.”

Positive Influence

Positive influence must start somewhere, and its benefits transcend the difficulties of any context, Mark suggests, whether that’s in business, community or in our personal lives.

The philosophy of positivity lies at the core of everything the ImpactInstitute does. Whether it’s in marketing, communications and storytelling, in impact advisory and measurement, or through the events they facilitate, their passion is to see brands and businesses empowered to talk about the good they do and the positive contributions they’re making.

“It’s an expression of our values, and who we are, and we want to make a difference,” Mark says. “Our focus has been around – how do we amplify that impact that other people are having? … The key to it for me, as a leader, is that I’m an optimist. And what I love about optimism in this context is that it says, yes, it’s hard, but there’s also a solution.”

Within business, Joce adds, positivity is something people are not only searching for but are coming to expect and have the power to demand.

“As consumers, we have the power to speak into those businesses … If there is a brand you want to engage with, and you can’t find what their ethical, moral plan is clearly stated, I recommend asking them about it … I encourage people to have empathy for businesses who are trying to get it right as well (because) businesses aren’t perfect.”

Our desire to search for and lean into the positive stems from our deep human longing for something better, Max says. Quoting sources from poetry and his Christian faith that inspire him, Max demonstrates that to find positivity, whatever the source, is to find hope, because they are inextricably linked.

Appealing to hope is the way to stay focused on moving forward, Max concludes. When we take the time to look to constructive, positive voices who help us see living, breathing examples of positivity, we have examples from whom we can seek inspiration to be positive, too.

Article supplied with thanks to Helping Hands TV.

About the Author: Helping Hands is an Australian produced TV program that airs on 9GEM, Channel 9 and 9NOW, and showcases people and organisations who make the world a better place.

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What healthy friendships really look like at every stage of life

“Healthy friendships are all about mutuality,” says psychologist, Collett Smart. “It’s about being on that even field where one isn’t more important than the other.”

Collett discussed healthy friendships with Nathan Brewer, a youth worker; and Ian Barnett, the founder of the National Grandparent Movement.

Across the stages and ages of life, our life choices and circumstances will influence the friendships we look for. Some friendships we make are deep and long-lasting, others are only for a season. But no matter our circumstances, the signs of a healthy friendship are the same.

What does a healthy friendship look like?

When asked what a healthy friendship looks like, Collett described her best friend, and says the strength of their friendship, and any healthy friendship, is there is no judgement.

“When I’m with Lorraine … whatever I tell her, she’s not going to judge me in my freak-out moments, or my darkest moments. She’s there to listen, she’s really open. She doesn’t judge me if I don’t text her fast enough. We pick up where we left off.”

Collett also refers to the work of psychologist, Professor Prinstein, who uses the analogy of a ladder for unhealthy friendships, and the playing field for healthy friendships.

There can only be one person at the top of a friendship ladder, and clinging on no matter what it takes is not healthy for anyone; not for the person on top, or the people striving to be at the top.  But on a friendship playing field, everyone enjoys mutual respect and an even footing.

Teenagers are particularly susceptible to unhealthy friendships, says Nathan.  When a power balance is at play, he says, young people find themselves on the unhealthy friendship ladder instead of the healthy playing field.

“A healthy friendship is quite inclusive and wants more people to join that circle, where an unhealthy friendship is often, ‘it’s just you and me’, at the expense of your other friends … Things that the child or teenager used to love, they kind of grow cold against because of the friendship.”

As we age, says Ian, our friendships will inevitably endure disagreements and differences of opinion, but in a healthy friendship, these struggles are always broached with mutual respect. A lifetime of experience and maturity bring the benefit of wisdom to these situations.

“There are certain relationships you have to maintain, but as you get older, there are certain things that you realise, ‘That is not helpful for me’ … It’s OK to say yes, and it’s OK to say no. We need to work out how to build confidence in not worrying about what ‘they’ will think.”

Knowing our boundaries, and learning how to respectfully communicate them, are essential pieces of the puzzle for healthy friendships. Good friends will respect those boundaries because they want the best for us, no matter how our friendships shift and change.

Article supplied with thanks to Helping Hands TV.

About the Author: Helping Hands is an Australian produced TV program that airs on 9GEM, Channel 9 and 9NOW, and showcases people and organisations who make the world a better place.

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Remaining grounded when our first instinct is to panic!

Whether you’re facing everyday stress or devastating tragedy, when life feels like it is spinning out of control learning to cope begins with grounding ourselves physically, naming our feelings, and having the courage to simply be. 

Psychologist Collett Smart, chaplain and author Raewyn Elsegood, and i4Give co-founder Danny Abdallah explores how to navigate moments of chaos.

Physical, Psychological, Social Wellbeing 

Collett Smart explains that when things feel out of control, our brains can’t function properly if our bodies are in chaos. The first step is always physical grounding – literally putting both feet on the floor and taking deep breaths focusing on the exhale. Drinking water helps too. These simple acts signal to your body that you’re safe, allowing your brain to engage. 

“What happens is that gets your body to start to realise that you’re actually safe and you’re okay. And then your brain can kick in,” Collett explains. 

“When you rehearse breathing techniques while stuck in traffic or missing the bus, you build healthy defaults that activate automatically when life truly spins out of control.” 

Perspective and Presence in the Chaos 

Raewyn Elsegood walks directly into chaos as a disaster recovery chaplain. Her role is to be the calmest person in the room, bringing the level of panic down through confident presence and a smile. But she’s learned that “spinning out of control” is deeply subjective – what feels catastrophic to one person might seem manageable to another, and both experiences are valid. 

When Raewyn’s daughter was diagnosed with severe aplastic anaemia four years ago, she initially coped by staying in chaplain mode – the voice in her head offering pastoral care sustained her through the first year after her daughter’s death. But in the second year, she had to surrender that professional identity and become mother Raewyn, allowing herself to grieve without control. 

“The strategy I use to get out of bed is, it’s a new day, I put my feet into the carpet and I curl my toes and I feel and allow every sense to come alive in my body, and it tells me that I’ve still got life to live,” Raewyn says. “I’ve still got two more children to care for, a husband to love, and people to serve.” 

Two Types of Courage 

Danny Abdallah speaks from the most unimaginable loss – three of his children killed by a drunk driver. Through that tragedy, he discovered something crucial about courage. The first type is when you put on armour and fight.  

“The second type is when things are spinning out of control and you know whatever you do, it’s going to make it worse and you’ve got to just surrender and offer it up to a higher being or God, and just sit in it and wait,” Danny says. 

Danny says that we grieve alone but heal together. “Everyone processes [things] differently, and that’s okay.” 

When tragedy strikes, the human spirit rises, and people open up and help in ways they don’t during ordinary times. 

What sustained his family was community – fruit platters appearing at their door, people quietly dropping things off, neighbours who didn’t leave their side. Danny sees God in these moments of service, noting that modern people can’t see the divine because they don’t look low enough. 

Whether the chaos is missing a bus or losing a child, the coping principles remain the same: ground yourself physically, name your feelings without judgement, reach out rather than isolate, and remember that your journey will look different from everyone else’s.  

Collett says that sometimes the best thing we can do when things spin out of control is to take one tiny step forward. And then another. 

If you or someone you know needs support, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14. 

Article supplied with thanks to Helping Hands TV.

About the Author: Helping Hands is an Australian produced TV program that airs on 9GEM, Channel 9 and 9NOW, and showcases people and organisations who make the world a better place.

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Why showing up matters more than having the answers.

Supporting others to live their best lives doesn’t require perfection. It requires presence, authenticity, and the courage to sit with pain. 

Wayside Chapel CEO Jon Owen, chaplain and author Raewyn Elsegood, and i4Give co-founder and prison chaplain Danny Abdallah discussed how they help people to live their best lives. 

Ask, Listen, Encourage, Check In 

Raewyn Elsegood strives to bring joy to hard places. As a chaplain, her approach is simple but profound: turn up and be present. She uses the R U OK? framework for effective conversations – ask, listen, encourage, check in – as a practical way we can support the people around us. 

Raewyn also talks about the importance of being kind, and the power of listening well. She says it’s important to listen well to our friends and also to our family members.   

She shares that her children say she was at her best as a parent when she didn’t tell them what to do, but showed up and listened to them instead.  

“Sometimes the most valuable thing we can do is sit on the end of someone’s bed and simply be present, saying nothing at all,” says Raewyn. 

“Imagine if we could all do that all the time,” she says. “Impossible, but we can all try.” 

Turn Pain into Purpose 

Danny Abdallah brings a perspective forged through unimaginable loss. Having lost three children and niece at the hands of a drunk driver, his approach to helping others centres on presence and patience.  

Danny quietly shows up for grieving fathers in his community, waiting until after the shock subsides before having coffee with them and simply listening. 

“When you’re too positive, you’re actually being negative,” Danny explains. “You’ve got to just sometimes sit in the pain. And I think once you get into that pain, you sit in it long enough, you feel this peace that’s like no other when you’re coming out of it.” 

Through his work as a prison chaplain and the Forgiveness Project he’s helped develop, Danny helps inmates understand the power of forgiveness – both of others and themselves.  

During the program, Danny’s story is shared with groups of 50 to 60 men, then they break into smaller groups with forgiveness coaches. The goal is to help men understand the importance of forgiveness, and to break the cycle of reoffending. 

Be the Imperfect Companion 

Jon Owen challenges the notion that we need to have it all together before we can help others. In fact, he sees that expectation as a delay tactic. He says that what matters isn’t perfection but authenticity. 

“Instead of saying ‘be strong’, I say my focus is on being a tower of weakness for others,” Jon explains. 

“Sometimes the best behaviour you can model is surviving [and] to remind people that the sun will rise the next day.” 

At Wayside Chapel and in his personal approach, Jon emphasises the power of proximity and following through on commitments. If he says he’ll call someone every day for two weeks, he does – whether they answer or not. That missed call becomes a reminder that someone is thinking of them in the chaos. 

Raewyn perhaps says it best when describing what living your best life looks like: having no expectations of anyone or anything. It’s about letting go of control and valuing what we have. Through presence, authentic connection, and the courage to accompany others through darkness, we can help each other find our way.

Article supplied with thanks to Helping Hands TV.

About the Author: Helping Hands is an Australian produced TV program that airs on 9GEM, Channel 9 and 9NOW, and showcases people and organisations who make the world a better place.

Feature image: Canva

As humans, we share the common desire to be known and loved. But what happens when those expectations aren’t fulfilled?

“Unmet expectations are usually around relationships,” explains psychologist, Collett Smart. “You feel really let down and unloved, often because you think … they should have known, and they didn’t know, and now you feel hurt.”

Collett, along with Ian Barnett, founder of the National Grandparent Movement; and Nathan Brewer, youth worker, discussed what unmet expectations are, why they occur and how to avoid them.

No matter what the nature of our relationships with family, friends or colleagues, the ways in which our relationships with others are forged and grown creates expectations.

When our expectations are fulfilled, relational harmony is easier to maintain. But sometimes our expectations of others remain unmet, and this can cause confusion, pain and relational breakdown.

Unmet expectations, says Collett, are most often attributed to our unwillingness to communicate them. But the reasons why we fail to express our expectations to others are vast and varied.

At its core, explains Collett, our expectations are borne of a desire to be known and loved.

“I’ve been married for thirty years … and some of our niggles at home are still around unmet expectations … Sometimes we might feel embarrassed. It feels vulnerable. Or you feel like someone doesn’t care … it really boils down to you wishing the person would know you.”

Ian admits that being prepared to voice our expectations so they are more likely to be met doesn’t get easier with age.

He shares that Australia’s older generations have expectations around politics and community that seem to be increasingly unmet, but the most hurtful unmet expectations are centred around their adult children.

“The reality is, we struggle to communicate (our expectations) … because we’re fearful of rejection, and so the best thing is to just not say anything, and then we get disappointed when they’re not met … You have to work out what is realistic. What can I expect? And how can I function in that world and not be anxious if things aren’t met?”

Creating realistic expectations of ourselves and others is something all of us struggle with. None more so, shares Nathan, than today’s youth. Teens now not only contend with voices in their immediate family and social circles telling them what they should think, like, say or do, but are also constantly bombarded by countless influencers on social media.

“They (teens) are getting told to expect so many different things … (but) they don’t actually know exactly what they want. Do they want to be coddled and protected, or do they want freedom? They kind of want both, but they can’t have both … communication has to be so key.”

While the panelists agree with Nathan that clearly communicating our expectations is the key to having them met, they also agree that everyone can realistically expect to be the cause of someone else’s unmet expectations.

If that happens, Collett reminds us, any hurt they show is simply because they want to feel loved and known.

“It always comes back to communicating. My husband says to me, ‘Tell me! Talk to me! I can’t read your mind … It’s about communicating what you’re expecting.”

Article supplied with thanks to Helping Hands TV.

About the Author: Helping Hands is an Australian produced TV program that airs on 9GEM, Channel 9 and 9NOW, and showcases people and organisations who make the world a better place.

Feature image: Canva

The ripple effect of responsibility impacts the people around us, one way or another.

“We’re like a boat in a harbour,” says Joce Goto.  “There’s this wake behind us, and what we do has ripple effects into the people around us … You need to have an awareness of what’s behind you as you take steps forward.”

Joce is the Chief Operations Officer at Charitabl. and is joined by Mark Jones, Chief Storyteller at the ImpactInstitute; and Max Jegananathan, former advisor to the Federal Government, to discuss what it means to take responsibility for our actions.

Joce shares this analogy to help illustrate that our actions and choices have an impact on those around us. Her definition of being responsible on an individual, personal level means conducting ourselves with integrity, she says. We want to aim to be the same person in every circumstance, no matter what pressures or stress we face.

“I try to live by the adage of consistency in character. What does it look like for me to be the same person here … when I’m at home with my three-year-old, when I’m at work or with my team, or from a stage? How do I remain the same person throughout it all?”

This same attitude to responsibility is increasingly finding a place of importance in business too, Mark says, simply because it’s not sustainable to pretend to be something you’re not.

Mark clarifies that today, business leaders can expect to be held accountable by their staff and clients for their conduct, for the values their organisation stands for and for their business to be about more than merely satisfying the minimum moral and legal standards to avoid getting into trouble.

If business leaders aren’t free to be themselves, Mark says, it creates a culture of mistrust and a lack of authenticity.

“It’s really key that when you want to bring people with you on a journey, they want to follow real people, and so, we’re starting to see more leaders realising they can be themselves … that’s how you get better retention of staff and more customers who like you.”

In politics and in any public arena, Max says that taking responsibility for one’s actions is perhaps an even rarer but infinitely valuable jewel to be treasured.

Things are never as black and white as they first may seem and blame for mistakes made can hardly be attributed to just one cause or one individual’s fault.

Whatever one’s part might be, Max says, whether it’s 5% or 50% of what went wrong, taking 100% responsibility for your part is the key to being a person of integrity.

“What you see far too often … particularly in public communication and public leadership is people being sorry for the offence they’ve caused, or for how someone feels, or for the impact on someone, as opposed to just being sorry that they said or did something – full stop. That complete sense of ownership over something that’s gone wrong … when you see that, people react and respond in a much more accepting way.”

Article supplied with thanks to Helping Hands TV.

About the Author: Helping Hands is an Australian produced TV program that airs on 9GEM, Channel 9 and 9NOW, and showcases people and organisations who make the world a better place.

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