Common Ground Civic Centre

Every third space starts because someone believes in something. But belief doesn’t pay the bills — money does. That’s the tension at the heart of CNFC Circle #2.

On 18 Sep, we’re joined by Simone Lim of City Sprouts and Cai Bingyu of Ground-Up Initiative (GUI) — two practitioners building very different homes for the same belief: that sustainable living starts with community.

Early bird tickets available until 4 Sep – $22 (incl. GST).

Find out more! https://ourcommonground.com.sg/cnfc26-circles

Impact work, collaboration, bringing people together — they look good in photos and numbers. But those don’t always show what it took to get there.

After last year’s Connecting Narratives for Change Festival, we sat with our wins and named the costs behind them. Swipe to read through them!

These are costs we’re willing to pay because we believe a neutral third space matters — for conversations on how things can be better in our personal, professional and civic lives.

If that’s something you’re looking for too, CNFC is coming up very soon. Save the date: 17 October, Saturday!

We don’t often get to hear what starting and leading a third space actually feels like from the inside. Who takes care of the space — and who takes care of the people running it?

That’s what we want to explore in Circles #1.

On 28 Aug, we’re opening CNFC Circles with our first session at Joo Chiat Social Club. We’ll get to hear from Bennett and Mariel on what it’s really taken to build and sustain the space, including how they’ve learnt to flow between “me-first” and “we-first” to keep it all going.

Early bird tickets available until 10 Aug – $22 (incl. GST). Find out more: https://ourcommonground.com.sg/cnfc26-circles

We don’t often get to hear what it actually takes to start and sustain a third space. That’s the very conversation we want to start.

Introducing CNFC Circles — a new series under CNFC26 for impact practitioners who want to go deeper on what third spaces really need.

Four circles. Four polarities every third space has to navigate: the people, the money, the ecosystem, and the endings.

Circle #1 starts in August. Tickets on sale now! https://ourcommonground.com.sg/cnfc26-circles

We don’t often get to hear what it actually takes to start and sustain a third space. That’s the very conversation we want to start.

Introducing CNFC Circles — a new series under CNFC26 for impact practitioners who want to go deeper on what third spaces really need.

Four sessions. Four practitioners. Four polarities every third space has to navigate: the people, the money, the ecosystem, and the endings.

Circle #1 starts in August. Tickets on sale now — https://ourcommonground.com.sg/cnfc26-circles

Good impact work needs a good impact story. So why does the sector treat it as an afterthought?

We’re co-hosting this Impact Evenings with Green Nudge because they’ve sat with this exact tension — not just talked about it. Every December, they publish an annual Impact Summary Report: a deliberate pause to ask “what actually happened here” before telling anyone about it. That kind of intentionality is uncommon not because people don’t want it. But because most don’t have the capacity or resources to make space for it.

31 July 2026, 7–9pm at Common Ground Civic Centre.

Link in bio to sign up for Impact Evenings!

Impact doesn’t always show up in numbers. Sometimes it shows up in the extra time and effort a team chooses to give.

The teachers at Brave Feats Student Care could’ve told their students what to do. Instead, they let the children lead.

Swipe through to see what came out of it.

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We write social impact stories to document what impact work really looks like beyond what gets measured.

Read the full story: https://bit.ly/CGCC-impact (or head to link in bio!)

This year, we want to be a third space for impact practitioners to learn, reflect and connect.

Join us this July if you want to:

- Learn how to tell impact stories that land.
- Reflect with fellow practitioners on the last quarter.
- Connect over the stories that don’t get told — and why they matter most.

Link in bio to sign up! We hope to see you at the Civic Centre soon.

7 years in one space. 7 honest reflections.

Proximity isn’t the same as trust. Being somewhere isn’t the same as belonging. These are some of the things that running a Civic Centre has taught us. And this is the kind of learning that only surfaces when we paused long enough to reflect on it.

Swipe through our reflections! And let us know what has staying in one place long enough taught you?