Welcome to Heart and Soul Story, an award winning social enterprise with a vision to facilitate empathy & connection through the sharing of life stories. Here you can find out a little more about our story and discover the important role we all play in ensuring connection, compassion, and overall well-being across society.
Heart & Soul Story began at the grassroots — in aged-care homes and school classrooms — where we saw firsthand the power of connection between our Youth and Older People to change lives. Today, that lived experience informs something bigger: a strategic imperative and commitment to rebuild community connection across generations, systems, and sectors.
We work at the intersection of practice and strategy — designing programs, partnering with changemakers, and shaping national conversations about ageing, youth wellbeing, and social cohesion. Our mission is simple and urgent: to help communities reconnect in ways that are meaningful, measurable, and capable of driving long-term systems change.
The Heart & Soul Story team is passionate about providing social impact across the following areas
– Intergenerational programs & initiatives (Design, facilitation & Implementation strategy)
Our award-winning Seniors & Teens Empathy Program, facilitated across multiple homes since 2017, was recognised as the 2024 Young Person Program of the Year by the Australian Institute of Intergenerational Practice. We design, facilitate and support intergenerational initiatives that centre empathy, storytelling, inclusion and community participation.
–Intergenerational Education & Strategy We advocate for intergenerational connection as a foundation of social cohesion and community mental health. This includes training, workshops, conference presentations and strategic consultation with schools, aged-care providers, government, and community organisations — helping leaders understand how intergenerational thinking can shape systems, places and programs for the better, and working through opportunities and challenges of implementation.
– Intergenerational Impact ( Defining success, evaluation, and program improvement)
Impact is more than numbers on a page — it’s the quality of connection we create between generations. Our approach to intergenerational evaluation blends evidence-based tools with the lived experience of participants, families, educators and aged-care teams. We define success through shifts in belonging, empathy, confidence and community participation, and we measure what matters: real human change. Our programs are continuously reviewed and refined, using participant feedback, reflective practice and apporpiate evaluation frameworks. This commitment to learning ensures our intergenerational experiences remain safe, meaningful and transformative for both young people and older adults.
– Third-sector social impact Collaborations, Strategy & Research We partner with organisations across the third sector to design and strengthen social impact initiatives that bring communities back into connection — across generations, cultures, and life stages. Through research, strategic consultation, and creative co-design, we help shape programs and movements that foster better ageing, improve mental health, and build community wellbeing from the ground up. Here’s just a few examples of who collaborate with to look to a future of systems change.
Our approach is collaborative, inclusive, and locally grounded. We partner with Change Maker organisations such as RUOK to imagine what’s possible for mental health with a connected community and support emerging national movements such as Good Flock, where transformational, systems-level change is already taking root. Together, we work to create strategies that not only inspire, but meaningfully shift the way communities connect, care, and thrive.
Heart & Soul Story Team
We believe stories have the power to connect people, especially across different age groups, through the sharing of life experiences and wisdom. Our stories, when shared authentically, are an incredible tool for change.The award-winning Seniors & Teens Empathy Program has become a leading model for connection-based wellbeing in both education and aged care.
Samantha Heron is a social impact strategist, intergenerational practitioner, and Founder of Heart & Soul Story, where she blends grassroots facilitation expertise with deep systems thinking to strengthen community connection across Australia. Holding an Honours degree in Psychology ( USYD) and postgraduate qualifications in Social Impact (UNSW), Sam specialises in intergenerational design, facilitation, impact, and cross-sector collaboration.
With clients spanning government, schools, aged care providers, and national advocacy organisations, Sam’s work sits at the intersection of ageing well, youth mental health, and community resilience. Whether collaborating with Agency for Clinical Innovation, RUOK, Bupa Aged Care, or the Positive Schools Conference, she brings a uniquely human, hopeful approach to systems change — shaped by both professional expertise and her personal life as a mother of three who greets most mornings with a restorative sunrise surf ( or often just a paddle 😉
Listen to Sam speaking about key community connection values below. For experience and testimonials please see below or LinkedIn
Sam is joined by team members Natasha Cromer and Rachael Rogan who contract with Heart & Soul Story in the areas of strategy, design, and facilitation whilst running their own successful public health businesses.
Natasha Cromer has extensive experience spanning the commercial and non-profit sectors and a passionate commitment to advancing public health. She has competencies in strategy development, stakeholder engagement, brand management, marketing, innovation, health promotion, communication, and advocacy. She has interdisciplinary academic credentials, including a Bachelor of Commerce and Master of Public Health. She is driven by a genuine passion for improving community health outcomes which she does, when not working Sam, through her strategy and health communications business Seedwell.
Natasha and Samantha love working together, and have collaborated on several projects to drive positive social change within the Aged Care and Intergenerational practice sectors, including the Fight For Better Aged Care campaign, strategic consultancy with Catholic Health Australia on Aged Care Workforce, and more recently completing the Tech Ready Women Founder program together to explore efficiencies in intergenerational practice education and program delivery.
Rachael Rogan
With over 19 years of experience in well-being and program facilitation within her business Lighten Up Fitness, Rachael is deeply passionate and dedicated to fostering intergenerational connections that promote understanding, empathy, and collaboration.
Throughout her career, she has had the privilege of leading Yoga and Mindfulness workshops for a diverse range of settings, including intergenerational programs, corporations, high schools, and senior community groups. Her facilitation experience extends to non-profit organisations such as the Benevolent Society and Encore—a breast cancer exercise and wellness program dedicated to supporting women in their breast cancer journey. Currently, she is also a co-facilitator for the Yoga for Recovery program at the South Eastern Sydney Local Health District Recovery & Wellbeing College. In this role, Rachael uses her counselling credentials and collaborates with healthcare professionals and participants to create a supportive and empowering environment for healing and growth.
My journey is driven by the belief that by embracing the strengths and experiences of each generation, we can build communities that thrive on mutual respect, understanding, and lifelong learning.
“We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we live & work. We pay our respects to Elders of the Past, Present, and Emerging, and to their stories.”
Past and Current Partners in Community Connection
Heart and Soul Story thanks it’s Founding Supporters:
Awesome Foundation Layne Beachley Foundation, SEFA/ MACQUARIE Foundation, Social Change Central
Fighting for Better
Working with Seedwell Health Consultancy and Catholic Health Australia to develop a campaign to encourage community members to fight for better aged care prior to the Monaro Bi Election in 2020.
Testimonials
“One of the rising stars of the social entrepreneur movement”
Samantha Heron is one of the rising stars of the social entrepreneur movement. Her social enterprise Heart & Soul Story has already broken new ground with the highly original STEP (Seniors and Teens Empathy Program), weaving together new strands of the social fabric by putting older and younger members of the community in touch with each other. That program will grow because, like all Sam Heron’s initiatives, it responds to the urgent need to reduce the risk of social isolation – in this case by establishing new connections between people (teenagers and nursing-home residents) whose voices are often not heard. Unlike many people with good intentions, Sam is tackling the challenge of social fragmentation on the ground, with practical strategies for rebuilding local neighbourhoods and communities.
Hugh Mackay AO, Social Researcher, Psychologist, Author, Founder IPSOS Mackay Report, delivered the Australia Day Address on 23 January 2019.
We are always delighted with programs that help bring joy to those we care for, and we love this one as it also brings joy to the teens involved at an important part of their development and social care!
Rachel Argaman, CEO Opal Healthcare
“You wholesomely incorporated the true definition of what meaningful engagement should look like.“
Your tremendous work in curating and delivering this specialised intergenerational program for our amazing residents in Annandale is truly remarkable. Watching residents’ gleeful expressions at the sound of the program’s name is something that I will always cherish. You wholesomely incorporated the true definition of what meaningful engagement should look like.
I truly hope you understand the impact you bring to our residents’ lives and I’m sure, the students as well.
Justin David 2020Lifestyle Manager, Opal Annandale 2020/2021
“You never gave up”
Thanks for the amazing program you run… there were a number of tech complications due to taking the face-to-face program online during COVID, but you never gave up and the way you handled yourself and your interaction with the residents was magical-you really have a special gift in that area. The students from our school, treasured the interactions and the friendships they made. It really had a huge impact on them.
Sarah Travis Head International Grammar School Year 10 2020
“Hard, yet thoughtful work”
So lovely and incredible what Heart & Soul Story is facilitating. I’m a huge fan of what has been created with STEP and the hard, yet thoughtful work and energy they put into the intergenerational space.
Dr Stephanie Ward, UNSW Futures Aging Institute, Geriatrician for ABC’s Old Peoples Home for Teenagers
“The program run by Heart & Soul Story in our HammondCare Miranda home with residents experiencing dementia was uplifting and encouraging, made a huge impact on all participants involved, and most importantly, has increased the positive engagement with residents. The intergenerational experience for the young adults from Sylvania High School has offered them a particularly supportive role. Helping the care home to be connected to the local school consequently allows it to be more deeply connected with the local community.”
Damian Fisher, Head of Marketing Residential Care/ Home Care/ Customer Experience, HammondCare
Samantha is a very personable, intelligent and compassionate person who has the ability to lead and inspire people. She has a calm and very considered approach which belies the determined and passionate characteristics that underlie her personality. Sam’s great interpersonal skills, and her easy but very professional manner inspires the confidence of our clients which assists greatly in the success of the projects that she worked on.
Sam is the kind of person whom I feel, is destined to do great things. Her professional background and training, combined with her wide range of personal attributes, equip her to contribute to the improvement of a range of social and environmental issues that challenge our society today.
Melissa Reader, Founder The Violet Initiative
“I was in the audience for the Social Enterprise Masterclass webinar yesterday. Your story on facilitating empathy and resilience through sharing stories was inspirational. It’s a great idea that will make a big impact!”
Vincent Rizzo, Director, New Products & Services Innovation Program
If you are interested more, please look around our site or please feel free to contact us.