Global Centre of Possibility
Whanganui City of Possibility
What is the Whanganui City of Possibility?
Imagine a place, a city, a truly progressive world leading community, here in beautiful Aotearoa where people living with an impairment not only thrive, but are leading the design, innovation and transformation of the world around us. Imagine a place that models what is possible when we embrace future-focused accessibility leadership at the heart of everything we do.
That is what a City of Possibility will create.
In 2024/2025 the GCOP, under the skilled leadership of blind social entrepreneur and access innovator Minnie Baragwanath, along with a talented local and international project team, is leading the activation of the city of Whanganui as the first ever City of Possibility in the world.
As the first City of Possibility, Whanganui will not only become the most accessible city in Aotearoa to live, work and play as an access citizen, but it will also become a global leader in design, innovation, research and development of accessible products and services fit for a contemporary global market of access consumers that is close to 2 billion people and has a spending power of $US13 trillion.
Whanganui will:
House the leading training organization in Possibility design, innovation and entrepreneurship
House the Possibility Hot House of access designers and entrepreneurs
Establish the national cluster of Possibility enterprises
Become the place to trial, teat and learn for new and emerging access products and services
Become the best place to raise a child with disability
in the world by creating Possibility Pathways.Host the Designing Futures of Possibility Symposium series.
Projects:
The first access entrepreneurship project is already up and running in partnership with Thrive Whanganui an organization that specializes in supporting grass root businesses get off the ground.
In August 2024 the team at Thrive are piloting their first ever access entrepreneurship program!
Watch out for more on this exciting iniative!
Whanganui City of Possibility 25-Year Strategy
Why Whanganui?
Whanganui is uniquely positioned to become the first ever City of Possibility and to model a place based approach to accessibility transformation because:
At just under 50,000 residents the city is large enough to support the project but small enough to model change easily
It is already operating as a world leader.
It is the only New Zealand UNESCO City of Design, and a national leader in sustainable design
And the Whanganui River Settlement Act 2017 is world leading legislation which requires co-design with iwi and community
Whanganui has an abundance of disability and age facilities as well as the second highest number of disabled citizens per capita.
The city has demonstrated a community appetite for equality and for leadership
Local civic and business leaders are looking for new opportunities to grow the community and economy significantly
A number of world leading practitioners in accessibility are based in Whanganui and the surrounding region
The Global Centre of Possibility is now located here along with its founder Minnie Baragwanath
Read more in a River City Press article here:
The GCOP
The Global Centre of Possibility (GCOP), along with its founder Minnie Baragwanath who recently relocated from Auckland to Whanganui will be at the heart of this journey; championing Possibility and the ‘with’ philosophy, coaching individuals and organisations, attracting investment and networks, and providing a strategic lens to guide development. This approach continues GCOP’s strategy of working “with” not ‘to’ or “for” the access community.
The GCOP is a catalyst and changemaker, creating the runway for Possibility transformation in Aotearoa and around the world for people living with a disability. The Possibility lens which sits at the heart of the GCOP, is unique to Aotearoa and was created here by a group of access citizens, innovators and designers as a new lens for the 21st century.
At the heart of this approach is the idea that unless we learn to work “with” (not doing “to” or “for”) our access leaders, designers and innovators we will never actually achieve true parity for access citizens locally and globally.
Theory of Change (TOC)
The TOC that underpins this 25- year City of Possibility concept, is that unless we embrace a Possibility approach to Leadership Design and Innovation, unless we understand what it means to be truly ‘with’ our access leaders, designers and innovators we, society will never create a fully accessible future for all. Instead, we will continue to design people, talent, creativity and contribution by people with disability, out of our society, economy and communities. In this VUCA (Volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world we currently live in, we also run the risk of losing many of the hard fought for gains by the access community which could propel this community even further back than we are at present.
By creating the first City of Possibility and by modelling a place-based approach we can truly test out a new future, one full of Possibility for/with our access citizens of today and start to reimagine a future full of possibilities rather than barriers. By using a place based approach we can use Whanganui as a pilot community for the rest of Aotearoa. We can be a ‘safe’ place to trial new products and new services with the access community in real time. We can also nourish an emerging eco system that will support access innovators, designers and entrepreneurs to flourish in a set of conditions designed for that very purpose. An accessible Silicon-valley if you like!
Our Partners
GCOP is open to all potential partnerships and welcomes all participants to the City of Possibility.
Primary partnerships are anticipated with: Whanganui District Council, Whanganui & Partners, Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui Regional Museum, Horizons Regional Council, Local and national disability providers, Local access innovators, designers and entrepreneurs, Te Rūnanga o Tūpoho, Te Rūnanga o Tumaūpoko, Te Rūnanga o Ngā Waiariki Ngāti Apa, Te Kaahui o Rauru, Whanganui DHB, UCOL, Thrive Whanganui, Whanganui Enterprises, Sport Whanganui, Business Whanganui, Te Manu Atatū, ACC, MSD, Housing NZ, UNESCO Creative Cities Network
International Partners will include: Remarkable Sydney and USA, Global Disability Innovation Hub UK, Global Disability Youth, Inclusive Innovation Network, Smart Jobs USA
Special Advisory Trustees
As the WCOP is a local place based initiative it is essential that the project is informed by local people!
The Special Advisory trustees are made up of a diverse range of people who are passionate about Whanganui and the advancement of an accessible future. They include local people who live with an impairment, families who have children with impairments, innovators, designers, entrepreneurs, as well as business and community leaders.
We will keep adding to the Special Advisory Trustees over the coming months.
