Welcome to the Journey
By Alison Gilchrist, CEO, GFS Perth
There are moments in the life of an organisation when you can sense that something important is beginning to take shape. For GFS Perth, this is one of those moments.
Over the past few years, we have been quietly working behind the scenes to reimagine what a 140-year-old organisation might look like in the modern world. We have been asking ourselves some big questions:
How do we help people build meaningful friendships in an increasingly disconnected world?
How do we create places where people feel they belong?
How do we care not only for one another, but also for the world around us?
Those questions have led us to a simple but powerful vision:
Enabling friendship and caring for creation.
Everything we do now flows from that vision. For some organisations, friendship might seem like a soft concept. We see it differently.
We believe friendship is one of the most powerful social forces available to us. Strong friendships improve wellbeing, reduce loneliness, strengthen communities and help people navigate life’s challenges. In a world where many people feel increasingly isolated, friendship matters more than ever.
At the same time, we believe caring for creation is not an optional extra. It is part of our responsibility to future generations and part of creating healthy, thriving communities.
These two ideas have come together in our most ambitious project to date: Friendship Central.
Located in the Swan Valley, Friendship Central is being created as a place where friendships and a greener tomorrow meet. It will be home to community programs, social enterprise activities, permaculture projects, volunteer opportunities, workshops, a café, makers and traders, children’s nature play spaces and much more.
But Friendship Central is not really about buildings.
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It’s about people.
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It’s about creating a place where someone new to the area can make a friend.
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Where a child can discover the magic of digging in the dirt.
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Where a volunteer can learn new skills.
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Where older and younger generations can spend time together.
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Where people can reconnect with nature, with community and with themselves.
As I write this, construction is underway. There are still challenges to overcome and plenty of work to do. Yet every week brings another small step forward.
One of the things I have learned throughout this journey is that meaningful change rarely happens all at once. It happens through hundreds of conversations, acts of generosity, volunteer hours, partnerships and shared ideas. It happens because people choose to contribute something of themselves to a vision larger than any one individual. That is certainly true of Friendship Central
Many people have already played a part in bringing this project to life, and many more will join us as the journey continues. This new blog is one way we hope to share that journey with you.
Over the coming months, you’ll hear not only from me, but also from members of our team, our Board, volunteers and partners.
We’ll share updates, stories, lessons learned, successes, challenges and glimpses behind the scenes of what it takes to build a friendship-centred organisation.
Most importantly, we’ll share the stories of the people who make GFS Perth what it is because at its heart, GFS Perth has never been about buildings, programs or projects, it has always been about people.
Thank you for being part of our story.
We look forward to sharing the next chapter with you.
Want to follow the journey?
Visit us — Come and see Friendship Central taking shape.
Join us — Volunteer, become a member, or join our Makers community.
Partner with us — Become a Founding Partner and help build something that lasts.