Belinda Young

Dr Belinda Young is a community leader, researcher and founder of Mums of the Hills, a grassroots organisation supporting families across Melbourne’s Yarra and Dandenong Ranges.

Mums of the Hills began in 2015 as a Facebook group, created after Belinda experienced firsthand how isolating parenting in the hills could be. What started as a simple way for local mums to find one another has grown into a large community network, connecting thousands of women and families both online and in person.

Over the past decade, Belinda’s work has taken her into some of the more complex challenges facing communities: disaster preparedness and recovery, mental health, family violence, social isolation, cost-of-living pressures and access to local services. She has worked alongside community organisations, businesses, emergency services and government to turn local knowledge into practical action.

In 2023, Belinda was named Victoria’s Australian of the Year Local Hero in recognition of her community work.

Her interest in understanding why some communities are able to mobilise and create change also led her into research. Belinda completed a PhD at the University of Melbourne exploring the relationship between online communities, place-based communities and real-world action, with a particular focus on preventing human-caused bushfire ignitions.

That combination of research and lived experience shapes the way Belinda speaks about community. She is particularly interested in what happens when we stop thinking of community engagement as simply communicating to people and instead create the conditions for people to connect, contribute and act.

Belinda speaks on community building, grassroots leadership, resilience, online communities, disaster preparedness and the role everyday people can play in creating change.

Her approach is practical and grounded in more than a decade of building community from the ground up — including the successes, the mistakes, the unexpected challenges and the lessons that only come from actually doing the work.