Driving Social Innovation in Place and Community

The 2025 City North Social Innovation Precinct Activation Challenge celebrates the creativity, commitment and shared effort of RMIT students, staff, community organisations, industry partners and civic collaborators working together to shape a more connected, inclusive and vibrant Precinct. This compendium brings together the projects developed through the 2025 Challenge. Each project explores a different way of activating place, strengthening community and turning ideas into practical action in an urban precinct.

This year, projects responded to three interconnected social impact areas:

• Social Care and Wellbeing;
• Smart and Sustainable Cities; and
• Trust and Community Cohesion.

Together, these projects show that the valueof the Precinct lies not only in the individual initiatives it supports, but in its growing capacity to connect people, ideas and institutions around shared challenges and opportunities.

Meet the City North Activation team

Based in Melbourne, these are the people behind the work bringing the district to life. In partnership with collaborators locally and globally, they create opportunities for peopleto connect, share ideas and work togetherin new ways. Through a growing programof place-based initiatives, they’re helping to build momentum, strengthen community and create meaningful impact across the district.

• Tom Bentley
• Clare Chick
• Michael Cassidy
• Kiri Delly
• Niamh Barker
• Christina Lovrecz
• Alice Sheehan
• Jessica Hogg