Welcome to the Urbankind Commons
A community giveback initiative by Urbankind, supporting Motherhood in the Neighbourhood through volunteer projects that improve daily life.
Introducing the Urbankind Commons, an initiative created to strengthen communities through empowering women and children to be active in improving daily life in their neighbourhoods and enable families to lead healthy, happy and more playful lives in the urban environment.
Each year we support a selection of projects by volunteering our time, expertise and with kickstarter funding to empower the groups and projects to get momentum and gain the skills and gain required approvals to continue to make life better in communities. Engaging in authentic and meaningful ways with women to understand the key challenges they face daily in their neighbourhood and working to overcome the barriers together and create small changes to help facilitate more connections and support for families.
So I had this theory….about how mothers are so often left out of the conversations about the places they use day to day in their neighbourhood. Since becoming a mother my perspective on planning for places has changed and I realised I had unintentionally undervalued the intel that mothers and children have as location experts. Having led many large city shaping projects and engaged thoroughly to tick all the consultation and engagement boxes…or so I thought. Now I know better, I’m doing better, engaging in more relevant and convenient ways that enable women to contribute in between the daily juggle of family life.
Our practice here at Urbankind has been heavily shaped by a gendered approach to planning. Shaping your own studio to be the change you want to see in the world is exhilarating and these volunteer projects are a chance to empower everyday people to understand they have the power to make changes in their neighbourhood that will leave a legacy to be proud of and facilitate connections between families in local communities. We are also seeking to build better relationships between communities and the decision makers that shape their local areas.
Our current projects
Coolum Common.
Coolum Common is a community led initiative to establish a community garden and sustainable living hub/outdoor meeting place in the heart of the Coolum Beach community.
The initiative started over coffee with 6 local mums about small projects that would improve daily life for them and help them live healthier, happier and more playful lives with their families in Coolum.
While we navigate the red tape for the approval for the site we are establishing a network of pop up gardens throughout our local community so people can start to connect, learn, share and grow together in a free and inclusive way.
Visit Coolum COVID Tourism Recovery Project.
We helped secure $27,500 in Tourism Recovery funding to help give Visit Coolum the tools, technology, strategy and content they needed to help improve their ability to be a holiday destination of choice. We also donated $10,000 worth of in-kind support to amplify the project’s economic impact for local families who rely on tourist trade.
2023 projects to be announced soon.
We will continue to support the Coolum Common project into 2023 to build the capacity of the Volunteer Committee to navigate the next stages of building the community support, navigating the approval process, designing the space and seeking funding for the first stage of construction.
We have selected two female owned business to support in the next financial year. They are both providing outstanding support to women and children in the communities they serve and supporting creative businesses to thrive. More info coming soon.