| There might be all kinds of things stopping you from getting where you want to be in life. |
We see a black, non-binary person on an orange background facing the camera as circles pop up around them containing different words that could represent struggles in their life; money, health, transport, accessing public services, mental health, education, skills and social networks. |
| When one thing goes wrong, it can impact on everything else. |
The circle with the words ‘mental health’ increases in size, which in turn increase in size as they are affected. As they increase in size, only the persons head can be seen. They pop their head through the circles and grab a couple of them as they try to keep their ‘head above water’ metaphorically speaking. |
| So why do public services focus on single issues? |
The scene changes and we see 7 public buildings pop up, each has a circle attached to it with the name of the single service that they solely focus on; money, health, transport, public services, mental health, education and social networks. |
| It makes it a nightmare to navigate the system, especially if you’re already struggling. |
A dotted line animates its way around each of the service buildings, crossing over itself and looping back – representing the challenge people face when trying to access multiple services. The circles dissapear and the buildings move to each side of the screen as the person pops up from the bottom of the screen looking around at the buildings and appearing overwhelmed. |
| We think by working in the Big Life Way, things can be different. |
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| Take Daisy, mum of 3 and partner of Frankie. |
The camera pans to the right where we see a young woman, Daisy. 2 pushchairs and a primary school age daughter join her, followed by her non-binary partner, Frankie. |
| Daisy hasn’t been having a great time of it lately. She’s not been feeling herself and doesn’t know what’s wrong. |
Everyone else animates out of shot leaving Daisy alone. She looks sad and shrugs as she can’t figure out what’s wrong with her. A thought bubble with a quation mark appears from her head. |
| Her GP is worried about how much Daisy has been drinking – and wants to refer her to the alcohol service for some advice. |
The camera pans to the right and we see Daisy in her GP’s surgery. They are both sat down and her GP is talking to her, a speech bubble with the image of a bottle of wine and a wine glass appears from her mouth. The camera zooms in as the image in so we see both from the waist up, the speech bubble changes to show a building with a sign of it reading ‘alcohol services’. |
| But Daisy feels it’s just not the right thing for her. Right now, there’s too much else going on in her life. |
The camera pans to the left where we see a though bubble appearing from Daisy’s head, with words that read “I don’t think this is for me!” The camera then zooms in closer to Daisy and the GP moves out of shot. The thought bubble disappears and is replaced by 4 more thought bubbles, each showing things that are going on in Daisy’s life; family issues, money, her mother, and transport. |
| All this has made Daisy feel like a failure – that everything that’s going wrong is her fault. |
The thought bubbles disappear and a grey rain cloud with the word ‘problems’ inside moves down above Daisy’s head. She closes her eyes and lowers her head as she feels down. Raindrops fall from the cloud on Daisy’s head. |
| At Big Life we know that changing things for the better can sometimes be hard, and so we focus on the person – not the problem! |
The next scene displays big bold text reading: ‘At Big Life we know that changing things for the better can sometimes be hard’. As the text leaves the screen, the cloud and Daisy reappear. The rain stops, the word ‘problems’ disappears from the cloud as it turns from grey to white and the sun comes out from behind the cloud. Daisy looks up, opens her eyes and smiles. |
| When we met Daisy, we listened to her story and found out she was struggling with all sorts of things which were stopping her from getting where she wanted to be in life. |
The camera pans to the right and we now see Daisy at the Big Life centre, sat at a table drinking a coffee and speaking to a Big Life representative. The representative is listening to Daisy and giving her the space to talk about her story. Circles pop up around Daisy’s head with words in them, representing the things that Daisy is struggling with; saving money, happy family, stress and worry, family income, support network. |
| Last year she lost her mum, who was a major support to her and her family. |
The camera zooms in closer to Daisy, and we see her closer her eyes and lower her head as she thinks about her mum, who appears in a thought bubble from her head. |
| Now, the morning routine is very demanding and often ends in shouting. |
The camera pans off to the left and we see the morning routine in Daisy’s house. Daisy has the twins in a double baby buggy, and is shouting upstairs to her eldest daughter “Hurry up or we’ll miss the bus!”. We don’t see her daughter but see a speech bubble appear from the top of the stairs shouting “I am!”. Frankie who is at their laptop in the same room, then shouts: “Stop shouting!” |
| The nursery is in the next town and there aren’t many buses. |
The camera pans off to the right, and a winding road appears animating in from the left side of the screen to the right. As it appears it travels through the first two, where Daisy lives and houses, shops, public buildings and trees appear. A location marker appears above Daisy’s house which is on thee far left of the first town. As the road travels through the second town, more buildings appears and a location marker appears above the nursery, which is to the far right of the second town. |
| And it’s expensive. |
A bus travels from one town to the next. We zoom in to focus on the bus as it stops. £1 coins drop into the bus as if it was a money box. |
| Daisy also hasn’t had the opportunity to process her grief. |
The bus and buildings fade out of shot and is replaced by a close up of Daisy’s face. She lowers her head and closes her eyes. A tear rolls down her cheek. |
| On top of all that, Frankie has been recently made redundant and is struggling to find work, meaning money is tight. |
The camera pans up and we see Frankie at their laptop an the dining room table. Frankie is looking sad and clicks on to a jobs website. They then check their bank account which says ‘-£72’ with the message ‘You are now using your £100 overdraft’. |
| By working in partnership with Daisy, we identified the things that she wanted to change, and what she could do to make that happen. |
The camera pans off the the left and we again see Daisy at the BigLife centre, at the table speaking with the representative. The camera zooms out and the table, Daisy and the representative are small at the bottom of the screen. A big list pops up filling the screen with the heading reading: ‘Daisy’s list’. There are 4 lines on the list. representing things she wants to change. Images and words appear from each. The first shows an image of a nursery with the words ‘find local nursery’ underneath. The second shows Frankie with the words ‘Skills for partner’ next to them. The third shows Daisy on a phone with the words ‘contact a counsellor’ next to her The fourth shows people on seats at a community group with the words ‘talk to others’ next to them. |
| By speaking to a counsellor, Daisy was able to talk about the real reason she had begun to have a drink to get her through – she was trying to block out her grief. |
The camera zooms back in at the representative is replaced by a counsellor. Windows appear in the background to represent that fact that we are now in a different building. A speech bubble appears from Daisy’s mouth with an image of a bottle of wine with a glass next to it. This is replaced with an image of her mum again as she lowers her head, closes her eyes and looks sad. The counsellor gestures in a caring manner to her as she does so. |
| Daisy was really lonely without her mum to talk to and she thought there must be other people in her situation. |
We zoom into Daisy again. Another speech bubble appears from her mouth with the image of her and her mum together, looking happy at each other. This is replaced with a question mark as she brings up the topic of other people in her same situation. |
| She had real skills to offer and just needed some help to make the most of them. |
Daisy smiles as she thinks about the skills she has to offer which are represented by circles with words inside: public speaking, social skills, organisational skill and empathy. The camera zooms out and we see the counsellor helping her feel confident about her skills. |
| So we supported her to create her own community group, bringing people together to help each other and talk about their experiences of losing of a loved one. |
Daisy and the counsellor move out of shot and a large piece of paper appears on the screen with the words ‘Community Group’ at the top, advertising her new community group. This is followed by a smart phone held by a person who has been emailed with an invite to join the group. There is a button at the bottom of the email with the words ‘join now’ on it. As the paper and phone move down and out of shot, people appear sitting at the community group as Daisy stands up and talks at the front/ The people are nodding their heads and raising their hands as they join in the conversation. |
| Our partnerships with other local services meant we could help Frankie to enrol on a digital skills bootcamp, |
The camera pans to the left where we see Frankie outside a building with a sign that reads ‘Digital skills centre’. |
| which eventually led to them finding work. |
The camera pans to the right where we see Frankie at a job interview. The lady interviewing them asks: “When can you start”?. |
| Knowing the local area also meant we could help Daisy find the twins places at a local nursery, |
We revisit the scene with the windy road connecting the two towns. The camera zooms into the first town where a location marker appears again above Daisy’s house Another location marker appears over a local nursery which is walking distance from Daisy’s house. |
| so that the family’s daily routine became less stressful – and more affordable. |
We also revisit the morning routine in Daisy’s house. This time Daisy says “Off to nursery back in ten”, he daughter shouts from upstairs “Okay Mum!”. Frankie offers to do the school run as they are working from home today. |
| There wasn’t one change that could help Daisy get to where she wanted to be, |
The camera pans down and Daisy appears in shot looking happy. The multiple changes that were required to help Daisy appear around her in circles; Partner’s job, local nursery, community group and counselling. |
| she needed to be seen a different way – the Big Life Way. |
The BigLife representative pops up into shot and puts her arm around Daisy, they look at each other and smile. They both look towards the camera as it zooms out and the words: “The Big Life Way” appear in big, bold white and orange text above their heads. |
| We’re in the business of changing lives. |
The representative moves out of shout as Daisy’s family join her in the scene; Frankie, the twins and her eldest daughter. Words matching the voiceover appear below the family. |
| To find out more about the Big Life Way visit thebiglifegroup.com/biglifeway |
The family moves out and the ‘Big Life Way’ text remains on screen. Text on screen matches the voiceover, the words ‘Big Life Way’ scale up and down in size as they are read out. The website url appears underneath, finishing with The BigLife Group logo underneath that. |
