After nearly a year of confusion and waiting in regards to running the community space that a handful of friends founded as a place to “promote community” with everyone welcome, there’s a clear path forward for the space.

This time though, one of the core members of The Commons’ Nissa Lee says, the whole project will be built on more solid foundations, with aims to “make the whole thing built around the people involved, and exactly what they want out of it”.

Ms Lee, who originally coordinated the Common Sustenance Project – a series of community cooking classes – and The Common cafe, believes the next steps forward for project will be “vital”.

“We’re all looking forward to getting everything back together again, and getting it based around our shared goals and ethics,” she said. “There’s new people [coming in] and there’s a lot of older people returning.”

“What we’re trying to do with the dinners and events is get people who have been on the periphery for a while to come and get involved. The aim is to get training workshops going, and share information in skills-based community organising workshops.

“The Commons is made up of the people who are involved, so we want to expand their capacity and let everyone work together. This way will be more sustainable, so the workloads are shared, and everyone who has an idea for a project can follow through with their new-learned skill sets.”

At its core the project must be built with “everyone in the community in mind”, Ms Lee said, and inviting everyone in with events is the very first step to the return.

The first of The Commons pot-luck dinner, which will also have open-mic music for any artists in the community, will be held on Friday, May 25. Beyond that, the dinners will be hosted on the last Friday of each month, and are open invite.