Nature Play WA and Plan E Landscape Architects prioritised kids’ consultation in play space design within a new housing estate. The impacts were bigger than a wonderful play space.

Geoff Woolcock is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Southern Queensland’s Institute for Resilient Regions, an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of the Sunshine Coast’s School of Social Sciences and an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at Griffith University’s Creative Arts Research Institute (CARI), assisting with the evaluation of Brydie Leigh-Bartlett’s Future Fellowship. His doctoral thesis on the HIV/AIDS activist movement whetted his appetite for meaningful, applied community-based research. His long-standing work with the public, private and not-for-profit sectors concentrates on developing qualitative and quantitative measures of progress and community wellbeing, closely collaborating with local communities in place-based, early intervention/prevention initiatives. Geoff is an experienced social researcher with considerable expertise in social and community service planning and evaluation, including social and ESG impact assessment and project evaluation, social capital and community capacity building. He has 35 years community-based research experience nationally and internationally, and has co-published over 175 peer-reviewed papers, book chapters and community reports. He has been an advisor to Communitas Community Development and Social Analysis, spoken at several writers festivals and written regular opinion pieces. As a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (MAICD), he is a board director of the Brisbane Housing Company (since 2009), the Australian National Development Index (ANDI) (since 2012, Chair since 2019), Thriving Queensland Kids Partnership (TQKP) and co-established Logan Child-Friendly Community Ltd in 2012 overseeing the high-profile collective impact initiative, Logan Together. Geoff is also a Research Fellow of the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, a member of the Anglicare SQ Research Evaluation and Advocacy Reference Group, and on the Centre for Just Places Advisory Board. As a founder and co-director of Global Talent Tracker, he has worked closely with the Australian Football League (AFL) for over a decade and is a Visiting Professor at Loughborough University’s Institute for Sports Business. He was the Australian member on the executive committee for the Asia-Pacific Child-Friendly Cities Network (2010-2013) and the inaugural Queensland convenor for the Australian Research Alliance for Children & Youth (ARACY) from 2013-2014. Geoff is a frequent public speaker and commentator about social and community development using a whole-of-community approach.