DoWell Co-design Lecture Series 2025-2026: Session 1. Designing for Connection: Co-Designing Everyday Systems of Care

Speaker: Dr Leigh-Anne Hepburn, Head of Design at the University of Sydney and Deputy Director (Design) at the Sydney Policy Lab.

Synopsis: How can collaborative design strengthen the relational, social, and institutional ties that support wellbeing? Moving beyond service improvement, this session positions co-design as a way to weave together everyday systems of care, connecting individuals, communities, and organisations through shared making and meaning. Drawing on examples from health, policy, and community practice, this talk highlights how co-design fosters belonging, trust, and adaptive systems that respond to people’s lived experiences. It invites participants to consider care not as a service transaction, but as a collective, ongoing practice of connection and reciprocity.