Meet Mount Pleasant’s Local Doers: Kate from the Brentwood Village Town Team

We like to bang on about how great (or rather, OK!) Perth is – but our greatness doesn’t just happen out of nowhere!

With a mission to create thriving, connected and empowered communities, Town Team Movement is all about “doers”.

We’re partnering up with Town Team Movement so we can shine a light on some of the people who help make our communities so unique, and just a few of the excellent initiatives they’re working on.

This week, we’re featuring Kate, one of the brains behind Brentwood Village Town Team, Mount Pleasant’s local Town Team.

According to Kate, a local community can become an extended family. A reciprocal working relationship with the Mount Pleasant residents has been built and strengthened over years of shared participation in the Brentwood Village Town Team.

Kate didn’t grow up in the area, so she finds that engaging in community work allows her to build meaningful relationships with collaborators while driving a positive change in her locality.

Synergy is essential for the success of any social organisation, and while her work in the area helps her develop her own sense of purpose, it’s enhanced by the complementary work of the other Town Team members.

Despite community work being casual and flexible in nature, Kate is committed to regularly supporting and investing her time into the monthly Mount Pleasant Gift And Take Market. Based on the “buy nothing” principle, the event allows locals to exchanged unused possessions for something that might be of greater value to them. As well as helping to facilitate locals getting to know each other, it was a vital part of community connection during the pandemic.

Another project close to Kate’s heart is the Long Table Dinner – one of the team’s most successful initiatives to create a space for community bonding, and which gathered approximately 130 people to meet, discuss ideas and develop a network over shared meals.

Since getting involved, Kate’s also noticed that taking on the leadership in community activation has encouraged others to get involved and contribute – with far reaching effects in all corners of the community.

In one project, a teacher and students from the GATE program initiated a local artwork – with an additional mural added to the same building by the local council.

Another successful project saw the installation of a communal garden and parklet facing the local supermarket – fostering connection with active maintenance done by members of the Town Team alongside other locals.

Above all, the Brentwood Village Town Team aims to foster the possibility for local community to become and be considered family.

Want to get involved and become a doer in your own community? Head to the Town Team Movement website to learn more.

Photography and interview by Ophelie Barbeau, edited by Perth is OK!