This recording is from The City Transformed: Urban life at the end of the world as we know it – Green Institute Conference 2023, specifically the session entitled A Caring City: From problem to solution featuring “Engaging youth as community partners, not community’s problem”, with Wendy Aghdam and “Reimagining Care: new starting points for policy reform”, with Kelly Saunders. Facilitated by Green Institute board chair Rebecca Galdies.

Wendy Aghdam

Wendy Aghdam (she/her) is a young person’s mental health nurse with nearly 20 years experience working and volunteering with children, adolescents, families and the community. As a program coordinator she has worked with thousands of school staff to enhance their capacity to prevent and respond to mental health concerns within their communities.

Currently, as the Greens candidate for Central Ward in the upcoming local government elections, set for March 2024, Wendy hopes to bring her knowledge of population health promotion to help promote inclusion and engagement in local decision making and sustainable care for community and country.

Kelly Saunders

Kelly Saunders is a PhD Candidate with the Faculty of Business, Government and Law at the University of Canberra.  Her research into hoped-for ‘care futures’ challenges the primacy of work to reclaim the transgressive potential of care.

Kelly has an Arts/Law degree from Monash University and worked for many years in law and public policy in Australia and France.

With the birth of her daughter, Kelly sought flexibility in work and care.  She started a consultancy in gender, mobility and public space and consults to clients including The World Bank, Arup, SNCF Railways and Transport Infrastructure Ireland.