We’ve been biting our tongues, waiting to be able to announce the winners of the QUT (Queensland University of Technology) x commonkind Impact Lab Design Intensive. Sixteen teams of talented students from different design disciplines came together tasked with responding to our brief.
The Brief
The challenge posed to the design teams was:
“How might commonkind create sustainable community service opportunities that are inclusive and accessible for families and young people?”
The Result
The responses and presentations were each unique and engaging. We had difficulty narrowing it down to even a Top 10 let alone the final three. This speaks to the calibre of students as well as the support provided by tutors Chloe Soan, Bronte Mark and Dr Valeria Macalupú in working with the groups to develop such innovative and exciting responses to the brief.
An honourable mention goes to the groups that considered smaller market segments such as at-risk youth and children in foster care. We LOVE these ideas and think they would be great for Phase 3 of growth, once we’ve scaled Phase 2 and got some more income in to support these programmes as they would require more time, resources and engagement of additional professionals to cater adequately and sensitively to their needs.
The Top 3
Drumroll, please…
In 3rd Place: Group 14 “Our Little Hearts” Penpal program.
This one really pulled at the heartstrings, and we’re guessing it would for others which makes it a great idea for also attracting external funding to get the “Our Little Hearts” penpal program off the ground. It also is a program that could be done by families at home (facilitated by commonkind), not necessarily in an in-person commonkind session. This appeals as it has the potential to engage children and families from all over Australia (hitting the inclusive and accessible elements of the brief). As a group, they didn’t shy away from the fact that such a program may bring experiences with death, and addressed this in their well-written “Consent Form” but, they also thought of a remedy – engaging local grief counselling organisations as needed. Thank you Team 14.
In 2nd Place: Group 8 “School Ambassador Program”
This group demonstrated a real empathy for the child/youth experience. They acknowledged that working within schools would be a good way to make this program inherently inclusive and accessible given the diversity of the student body. They took the approach of commonkind continuing with its existing charity partners rather than seeking new partners (thereby saving time) but instead focusing on getting into more schools. To gain interest from the schools they outlined various means to make volunteering appealing to 12-16 year olds. We loved the mock-ups of social media and ideas for awards to really bring their ideas to life. They clearly articulated why the “School Ambassador Program” would provide benefits for all stakeholders. Well done Team 8.
THE WINNER! In 1st Place: Group 6 “The Together Project”
This team most clearly answered the brief, not only outlining sustainable opportunities (being mindful of the key constraints we had identified around both time and money), but also providing ideas for how to scale “The Together Project” to other contexts such as parent workplaces and community clubs. The phases and framework were very clearly presented and demonstrated that a lot of thought had been put into their solution – almost placing themselves in our shoes. If we were hiring them as consultants we’d be happy that, in such a short amount of time, they “got it” and delivered such a pragmatic solution. Congratulations Team 6.
Thank you to all the designers
Thank you to all of the teams for the energy and enthusiasm you put into the Impact Lab and the creative solutions generated by all of your teams, we will draw inspiration from each of your projects. We wish you the best with your continued studies.
Thank you QUT for having commonkind! We hope to be able to participate again in future.
About commonkind
We provide benevolent relief to people and communities suffering from poverty, disadvantage and distress by facilitating age-appropriate community service activities for children, families and other interested parties.
Get in touch!
Whether you are a charity with a task that might be suitable or you are interested in helping us create a kinder and more connected community, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with us here.
