Designed
by Community
Cohort 1
“Design is a process and a mindset. It’s about asking the right questions and thinking about equity and accessibility”
The Designed by Community Fellowship is a paid fellowship and project funding opportunity to support community members in designing and developing hyper-localized solutions related to the COVID-19 crisis for and with New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) communities.
Team
Mari Nakano, Kyla Massey, Sophonie Milande Joseph, Tina Qi, Ava Nordling, NYCHA Community Leaders (Fellows)
partners
TakeRoot Justice, Equitable Neighborhoods Initiative
fiscal support
Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City
Citi
Role
Service Design and Program Lead
Service Design Curriculum Facilitator
SKILLS & SERVICES
Service Design Curriculum Development
Service Design Facilitation
Program Design
Participatory Partnership Development
Participatory Selection and Outreach Process Development
Fellowship / Program Development and Management
Social Media and Communications
Public Speaking
Personal Wins
Pivoting funds to innovate with community in a government context
Managing and operating a brand-new fellowship with a small and mighty team
Partnership and trust building with a community–organizing focused organization
Being able to change my mind about the Service Design process as it interacts with community and learning how to shift the approach
Publicly speaking about the Program at the 2021 Code for America Summit and Service Design Network’s Service Design Day Panel
BACKGROUND
In the original context, this program aimed to place 2 Designed by Community Fellows into a scoped government agency project. The project would align with the fellow’s living experience in navigating a specific program and/or benefit for low-income communities.
For example, if the Service Design Studio had a Childcare project to work on with either Administration for Children Services (ACS) or Department of Education (DOE) we’d want to match fellows who have close experience with, and want to improve, the experience of low-income families seeking childcare.
As a Designed by Community Fellow we would have them co-lead the service design process with our service designers while directing the project in terms of lived experience navigating the complex processes.
Then the pandemic hit just as we launched this iteration of the Fellowship, causing us to rethink our approach.
the pivot
We pivoted this our previous approach because:
We had a lack of understanding of projects coming down the pipeline–everything went out the window and we couldn’t be sure that we would be able to match fellows to their areas of focus, which felt like could further our concern for Fellows tokenization and, for us, centering and prioritizing a fellows needs and goals was our priority
We understood that working remotely would have a lot of requirements for fellows to work fast pace alongside a team that was used to working in ambiguous environments
Given how hard COVID-19 hit New York City and the influx of rapid response requests our team was handling, we weren’t sure we would be able to fully support the fellows as mentors
Most notably, we wanted to get money out into the community in order to address community driven need.
In June the Black Lives Matter protests were reclaiming the streets and mutual aid groups were springing up into action
We wanted to respond to the criticisms we were hearing and the demand we were seeing in communities to have control of their own recovery
fellowship pilot
Program Design
In its current iteration, The Designed by Community Fellowship is a paid fellowship and project funding opportunity to support community members in designing and developing hyper-localized solutions related to the COVID-19 crisis for and with NYCHA communities.
How we shifted our prior thinking to the current model for the Designed by Community Fellowship
Other Fellowship Documentation
Partnership Development
We knew in order to connect to community leaders we would need to partner with an organization that had strong connections with those already doing the work of organizing, activating, and delivering services and programs in their community. TakeRoot Justice is a prime example of a partner who holds deep connections to grassroots organizations, community leaders, and locally-derived community based organizations that would surface the fellows best motivated to bring their project ideas to life.
By focusing in on NYCHA, we would be able to think hyper-locally within an existing ecosystem of community leaders.
Context to the scale and history of NYCHA
I worked with TakeRoot Justice in order to co-define and design our working relationship, including the program design, outreach and selection elements, and funding disbursement.
Service design Curriculum Development
Using a Service Design curriculum, NYCHA Community Leaders (Designed by Community Fellows) work to define, scope, research, and produce a community driven program or service that will be implemented in their local NYCHA communities.
The current curriculum is broken down into 4 distinct phases:
Set the Stage (Define the problem you want to solve)
Talk to People (Talk to people in your community about what you want to solve)
Connect the Dots (Understand how your offering can be shaped by what you heard from your community)
Plan it Out (Develop an implementation plan, program brief, elevator pitch, and budget to bring the program to life)
Each phase of work includes an overview presentation, sample activities, worksheets/deliverables, and office hours to support the adoption of the newly introduced Service Design methodology.
Pop-out of an example of 7 weeks of curriculum with deliverable and agenda
Service Design Project Advisor
Working alongside 12 Designed by Community Fellows, I support scoping the research, development, delivery, and implementation of four community-led projects. I do this by in-class feedback and reflection moments, 1:1 office hour support, Slack activation, and an open-door policy for all fellows.
With the supporting project funds, Fellows can see their vision come to life at the end of the program, while walking away with:
A clear Project Background, Focus Area, and Research Plan
Supporting research from Community Voices (those who may be directly impacted by the fellow’s projects) and Community Voices (those who are working in a similar focus area as our fellows)
A synthesis document that supports their program / service
A program development model, implementation plan, and project budget
A presentation deck and elevator pitch to support additional marketing, fundraising, and development goals
service DESIGN FACILITATION
Each week I design the service design workshop. This is realized through cross-organization meetings where we set expectations, learn how to pivot and adapt where needed, and assign out portions of the work in order to move in a more agile way that can meet the emerging needs of the fellows.
social media and communications
For every new stage, we develop a social media series that illustrates the talent, inspiration, and learnings of the Designed by Community Fellows. Follow #designedbycommunity to see what we’ve done.
fellows and projects
This is an overview of the Designed by Community Fellows, the NYCHA developments they want to impact, and the program / service they want to provide to their community.
results
A piloted community–led Service Design learning and funding opportunity servicing NYCHA Community Leaders by supporting hyper-local community-based program, projects, and services.
A 5-month community–focused and informed Service Design Curriculum for supporting community–led projects
Four NYCHA community-led and research informed programs, events, and services launched in the NYCHA community.
12 NYCHA residents learning and applying service design tools and tactics to add to their community organizing and community service projects.
$100,000 funds distributed to community through capacity building community–based efforts
$6,000 of Community Incentive funds distributed directly into community from research
Formation of 2 business accounts through training and development for previously undocumented services
An additional $400,000 of funding secured for at least 2 future iterations
A community tested and informed look at the Civic Service Design process improvement (results coming soon).
10 NYCHA developments directly impacted by Fellows’s projects
learning and
reflection
We underestimated the need for technical assistance
Either screening for or allowing time for training on the tools we use early on would have benefited fellows and facilitators
Projects are best propelled forward when they also match the need for increased capacity and governance
For groups to succeed outside of a coordinated system (such as a non-profit working aligned with a government agency) there is a need for increased capacity building, especially in terms of internal governance structures and future planning for their budding organization
Bias is always present
Best laid intentions do not always render results. In order to best meet community with the Service Design framework, Design itself will need to shift and change in order to best support those directly in service and working alongside community.
rising opportunity
There is a rich opportunity to continue to adapt and refine an approach to Service Design that is Community Visioned and Led
This is the Service Design Studio's first attempt to go beyond agency capacity building. By bringing a service design lens to community-led programs and services, activists, organizers, and leaders are offered an opportunity to think for a long time about one problem.
The diagram, language, and positioning of Service Design did not always match up to the strengths, experience, and expectations of those who work and live directly in community.