When a primary caregiver's exhaustion meets an app developer's personal loss, sometimes a movement begins. In 2017, the creator of ConnectUp lost his mother in a car accident and returned to Poland to care for his father—a role that would later inspire him to build a digital platform now reshaping how Australians with disability and caregivers discover community. That chance encounter with someone nearby who understood the weight of caregiving became the seed for what is now a national collaboration spanning eight universities, CSIRO, and dozens of disability organizations.
Almost 1 in 3 Australians experiences loneliness, but for people with disability and caregivers, the isolation runs deeper. These populations face compounding barriers: people with disability struggle to access physical activities, while caregivers—who contribute an estimated AU$77.9 billion annually in unpaid labor to the Australian economy—frequently experience poorer physical and mental health than the general population. Yet despite their outsized contribution, they remain among the most disconnected. This is where ConnectUp enters the picture.
Launched following a 2020 funding call focused on social connection during the pandemic, ConnectUp began as a conventional social platform. Users could create profiles and chat online, but a critical gap became clear during co-design sessions with people with disability and caregivers: people didn't just want another social network. They wanted reliable, geographically specific information about which local venues actually welcomed them, which activities genuinely accommodated their needs, and where they could exercise confidence alongside connection. One caregiver captured it plainly: "I get all my resources from different newsletters, and I think you need something that's geographically located."
That feedback pivoted everything. In 2023, the research team partnered with the Australian Citizen Science Association to transform ConnectUp into something more ambitious: a crowdsourced map of inclusion. Rather than experts deciding which spaces are accessible, community members themselves—people with disability, caregivers, and supporters—document and review venues and activities in real time. They share which parks welcome walkers at any pace, which fitness classes accommodate diverse bodies, which community venues feel genuinely welcoming. It's citizen science applied to social participation: the same methodology that tracks bird populations or monitors environmental health, now harnessed to identify inclusive spaces.
The expanded platform allows users to discover local physical activities and accessible venues, organize everything from a game of football to a gentle walk in a local park, and review spaces to help others feel confident about participating. Because research consistently shows that social connection and physical activity are deeply linked to mental and physical well-being, enabling both simultaneously creates compounding benefits.
What began with one person's grief has become a blueprint for addressing systemic isolation. The collaboration now includes Ramsay Health Care, the WA Disabled Sports Association, Ballroom Fit, and organizations across the disability sector. As ConnectUp expands nationally, it embodies a quiet revolution: the recognition that inclusion isn't something experts design in isolation—it's something communities build together, one accessible venue, one welcoming activity, one local connection at a time.