Equity Designer Ally for #Youth and #DecisionMaking: Erika Harano
I am an experience designer and facilitator who is passionate about co-creating a more just, humane world. I want to see a transformation in dominant practices of design and decision-making, in which a select group of people in power make choices with massive implications, usually without pursuing (or blatantly ignoring) community input. Specifically, I am passionate about fighting for a world that respects young people as leaders, decision-makers, and designers in and of our communities.
Equity is important to me because it goes hand in hand with justice; without equity, we don’t have justice. Equity matters because inequity is violence, and inequity actively destroys life on Earth. Equity is especially important in design because design has the potential to transform dominant systems of power. Equity matters because it doesn’t yet exist.
I see Equity-Centered Community Design as a movement and a cultural transformation in the way we think about, learn about, and practice design. I am honored to join the Creative Reaction Lab team, where I support the work to drive Equity-Centered Community Design forward through training and capacity building. From working with young people to build experience and confidence as civic leaders, to working with adults in various sectors to critically examine how power, privilege, and oppression manifest in design and decision-making, Equity-Centered Community Design is the central thread that guides my work.
Participatory budgeting, in which community members decide the allocation of a portion of government funds, is one key way I’ve seen community design play an important role in influencing the outcome of a situation. The 49th Ward is one of a handful of communities in Chicago that practices participatory budgeting, and a few years ago, a group of young people at a high school in the ward created a proposal to allocate participatory budgeting funds towards street lights in select alleys in the neighborhood. The youth conducted community research to identify the priority areas for lights, created recommendations, and successfully led an awareness campaign to rally support for their proposal. Moreover, participatory budgeting has different requirements from traditional elections, so people can vote if they are at least 16 years old and can prove residency within the community, not American citizenship. To me, the spirit of participatory budgeting — from the fact that community members create ballot proposals, to the (somewhat) more inclusive scope of eligible voters — represents one powerful form of community design.
I’d like to see Equity-Centered Community Design in policymaking, especially at local levels. I’d like to see Equity-Centered Community Design in governance and policymaking. I’d like to see Equity-Centered Community Design in any decisions involving the use of space and place, including housing, city planning, and development. I’d like to see it in education and learning. I’d like to see it in defining community safety and justice. ECCD needs to be everywhere because design and decision-making processes happen everywhere, all the time, and they directly impact individual and community well-being.
