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Good practice Imported

ConnectUp — Co-Designed Social-Connection App for People with Disability and Carers

Australia · Melbourne · See the Australia profile · See the Melbourne profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 39% 76/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

University of Melbourne researchers ran six paid co-design workshops (17 disabled people/carers) with Perth's Carers WA to build ConnectUp, a peer-reviewed, AU$2M+ government-funded social-connection app launching nationally in June 2026.

17 people
Co-design workshop participants
37.50 AUD/hour
Participant hourly payment for co-design sessions
2+ AUD million
Government funding secured for national rollout

Details

Maturity
Scaling
Promoter
University of Melbourne, with Carers WA
Period
2021 (ethics approval) – ongoing, national launch June 2026
Keywords
co-design, social connection, disability, digital platform, research

Context

Nearly one in five Australians with disability experience social isolation, more than double the rate of people without disability. A University of Melbourne team led by Assoc. Prof. Dominika Kwasnicka set out to co-design a digital response with the community it was meant to serve, running six structured co-design workshops at Carers WA's Perth premises from October 2021 (ethics approval) over 18 months.

Activities

Seventeen participants — 6 people with disability, 6 carers, and 5 identifying as both, aged 20 to 73 — took part in up to 12 sessions, each paid AU$37.50 per hour plus travel reimbursement. The methodology and findings were published in a peer-reviewed MDPI journal in 2025.

Results

The resulting app, ConnectUp, secured more than AU$2 million in state and national government funding to be offered free to users and organisations running inclusive activities, backed by a coalition including Carers Australia, Alike WA, the WA Disabled Sports Association, Ramsay Health Care and several universities, with national public launch set for 7 June 2026.

Conclusions

Because national rollout was only just beginning at the time of these sources, demonstrated reach remains limited to the pilot's 17 co-design participants; population-level adoption data is not yet available.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — AU$2 million+ in secured state and national government funding for a free national app, plus a paid, multi-session co-design process, implies medium cost.
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years) — From October 2021 ethics approval through the planned June 2026 national launch spans roughly five years — a medium-length development timeline.
Staffing & skills
University of Melbourne (Assoc. Prof. Dominika Kwasnicka), Carers WA, Carers Australia, Alike WA, WA Disabled Sports Association, Ramsay Health Care

Conditions for success

  • paid co-design compensation for disabled participants and carers
  • an established community partner (Carers WA) providing venue and recruitment
  • a multi-stakeholder funding coalition ahead of national launch

Common failure modes

  • national rollout only just beginning; population-level adoption data not yet available

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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