Pass on new and preloved essential items to local families and children facing hardship, saving these items from landfill.
Helping young people feel confident and job-ready for interviews and employment opportunities.
We are a grassroots organisation with 350+ volunteers committed to helping our community’s most vulnerable children and families.
No one knows our community better than its residents, like YOU! Please join us in making change for your neighbours.
Pickleball for Purpose is Big Group Hug’s brand-new corporate team challenge, inviting Melbourne workplaces to swap their desks for the court in a day filled with fun, teamwork, and impact.
Play an easy-to-learn sport, enjoy friendly competition, win prizes, and share plenty of laughs, all while helping raise vital funds for children and families in crisis.
Places are limited and filling quickly. Secure your spot today!
Thanks to our Major Partner, Solvar, for supporting this event.
See you on the court!
Learn all about FutureFIT, a new workforce readiness program designed to support young people aged 15–24 in western Melbourne as they take their first steps into employment.
A collaboration between Big Group Hug and Ready Set, this pilot program runs June 2026 offering free wardrobe styling and interview-ready clothing to young people facing financial hardship in the cities of Wyndham, Hume, and Hobsons Bay.
Every year, Big Group Hug supports over 7,000 children in Victoria every year by providing the essential items they need.
A Festive Gift Drive is a great way for your family, school or office to come together, give back and make sure that every family has the chance to thrive.
You can choose whether you collect items every day for a month, over one week, or on one day, but we ask that you donate your items by 5pm, 19 December.
Big Group Hug has been offered 500 donated cots, but we need your help to make them safe and usable.
The brand-new cots are being gifted free of charge by Australian-owned baby furniture brand iL Tutto, but we need to buy the mattress before distributing to families in need.
Each cot needs a mattresses, costing $70, to meet Australian Safety Standards (AS/NZS 8811.1:2013) and provide life-saving protection against Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
With your help, we can ensure a safe sleep for Melbourne’s most vulnerable babies.
Run a goods drive in your school or workplace to collect new pyjamas, singlets, socks…
Our biannual coat drive in May, asking the business community and members of the public to donate coats for kids…
This festive season, gift an essential item for a local family in need.
Anna’s life took a devastating turn when a house fire destroyed all of her family’s belongings. Their most vital documents, birth certificates and passports, were incinerated!
This terrifying event marked the beginning of a steep downward spiral for the family, leading to significant financial hardship.
In the weeks following, Anna was making difficult decisions on which necessity to prioritise. Could she buy the clothing her 4-year-old Dylan* desperately needed as he was outgrowing what he had? Or would she buy a few extra nappies and wipes for her 18-month-old Zoe*, and forego the toiletries she desperately needed? Every week she felt like she was making impossible decisions.
The trauma of the house fire, the financial stress and health battles 18-month-old Zoe was facing, were wearing Anna down. She was slowly becoming a shell of herself.
We were able to provide an essential aid package, offering immediate relief from their financial burdens.
Babies and children received critical aid last year from Big Group Hug.
1 in 6 children in Australia live in poverty according to the ACOSS 2020 Poverty and Inequality report1 774,000, under the age of 15 live below the poverty line in Australia.
Essential items distributed annually by Big Group Hug
The main reason families request our support is financial hardship, followed by domestic violence.
Tonnes of usable textiles and children’s items diverted from landfill every year by Big Group Hug.
We are helping the environment by recycling and repurposing pre-loved items on a daily basis to gift to families in need (with some items that must be given new).
“I am a soon to be single mum, due in literally weeks. I was terrified and trying to figure out how I was going to afford what I had left to buy for my baby’s arrival. With no family help or support I was getting worried and felt like I wasn’t able to figure this out on my own. Today, I received the most amazing delivery from you and I just want to say, God bless all of you and thank you sooo much!!”
Support comes in all shapes and sizes. We are so grateful to the organisations, businesses, corporates and councils who get behind us, both financially and with material aid.
