QUT Impact Lab Winners Announcement (2024)

We’ve been patiently waiting to officially announce the winners of the latest QUT (Queensland University of Technology) design intensive Impact Lab focused on Society & Systems.

In August 2024, commonkind delivered a brief to QUT students enrolled in the Impact Lab – a hands-on 2 day design sprint focused on a client challenge.

At the end of August 2024, our Founder, Carolina met with the teams to kick off the sprint and answer their questions.

commonkind’s Founder, Carolina Puleston, fielding questions to kick off the 2024 Impact Lab” Society & Systems.

Once again we were impressed with the calibre of all teams. It was extremely difficult to narrow down to just a Top 3 from such a strong field. We thank all of the interdisciplinary design students for their energy, effort and application of theory in response to our design challenge.

The Brief

The challenge we posed was:

“How might commonkind cultivate a close-knit community of urban and regional volunteers so that they feel connected and valued?”

The Result

Ultimately, our judges chose the winners based on those that most successfully answered the brief. If we applied different decision criteria, such as focusing on growth or sustainability, the results may have been different.

The Top 3

With this in mind, the winners are…

In 3rd place: Group 11 with “Teaching Kindness”.

This group showed a solid research foundation and a practicality to their solution in terms of getting more out of an existing partner, in this case (Outside School Hours Care Providers). They also linked their idea back to commonkind’s mission and referenced the associated United Nations Global Goals. Importantly, they also included an element of connection between rural and urban volunteers through their penpal program. Well done Talisa, Bella, Austin, Yusuke and Holly.

In 2nd place: Group 2 with “Buddy Link

This group considered the loneliness research we had provided but went a step further and investigated the impact of loneliness on young people and incorporated this into their design. The BuddyLink buddy system certainly met the brief about cultivating a more connected and valued community of young people and could have future roll out to incorporate rural and urban volunteers together. What we liked about this concept is that while young volunteers might be working on tasks with a focus on SDG 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing) during their busy sessions, at the same time they may potentially improve their own mental health and wellbeing. Great work Sophie, Emerson, Simone, Olivia and Liza.

The overall winner in 1st place: Group 7 with “Commonkind Community

This group most fully answered the brief by providing a digital option where volunteers could form connections and stay connected regardless of location. This met the connection of rural and urban volunteers head on. The incorporation of milestones and in-app notifications to thank and celebrate volunteers for their service provided a fun and relevant way to motivate, encourage and show volunteers that they are valued. Congratulations Thomas, Evangeline, Shizuka, Rachel and Audrey.

A final thank you

A huge thank you also to the group tutors: Saffron Lloyd, David McEvoy, Emily Timms and Erina Wannenburg. Thanks also to Claire Brophy and Melanie Finger FHEA from the QUT School of Design for another successful lab.

Learn more about the Impact Lab in the students own words here.

Thank you QUT for having commonkind! We’d love to take part again next year!

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.

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