Robin Parkin is a facilitator in human-centred design with a background in community organising, social change activism and music education.

After moving to Melbourne from Adelaide, Robin worked with strategy and innovation organisation Hinterland for three years running co-design projects with a range of not-for-profits and supporting purpose-driven organisations to reflect on strategy. He now works as Service Designer at Lively, a new not-for-profit and fledgling home care provider employing young people to provide a range of supports to older community members to stay connected and independent.

While with Hinterland, he co-authored the design research report, Kitestring, looking at how people are finding and keeping close friendships in the modern era, which has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic and the Sydney Morning Herald.

He believes that the rediscovery of community and a sense of belonging to place are profoundly important in working towards solutions to the exclusionary and violent practices that are damaging the planet and vulnerable people in the 21st century, enabling us to tolerate difference and uncertainty, to step into our challenges with courage and compassion, and to live richer and more fulfilling lives.