Fellowship Panel: Shifting away from Practitioner-Centered toward Community-Lead
The Service Design Network New York Chapter hosted speakers from the Service Design Studio of the NYC Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity and Takeroot Justice’s Equitable Neighborhoods practice area: Mari Nakano, Ashley Cortez, Dr. Sophonie Milande Joseph, Kyla Massey, Marquis Jenkins, and Arabia Simeon Tuesday, June 8th, 2021 for a virtual talk and discussion entitled “Fellowship Panel: Shifting Away From Practitioner-Centered toward Community-Lead”. The presentation centered on the Designed by Community Fellowship program, which provides support to leaders and organizers who are affiliated with the NYC Housing Authority (NYCHA) to design and develop hyper localized solutions, especially those related to Covid-19.You can check out the full recording here on the SDN New York Chapter’s YouTube channel, and if you appreciate SDN NYC recordings, don’t forget to subscribe!
Community Led Service Design
Mari kicked off the conversation by setting the stage for service design and introducing the methods and practices of the Service Design Studio of the NYC Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity. The studio, whose “mission is to reduce poverty and increase equity through evidence based programming, service delivery, and innovative practices in design” has been exploring what it means for designers/facilitators to turn to a practice of community led design.
Mari noted that the studio is in a phase of learning and is taking notes from equity-centered and liberatory design practitioners like Antionette Carole and Hilary Sedovic at Creative Reaction Lab, Sloan Leo at Flox Studios, Blackspace.org, and the Design Justice Network.
The studio is embracing co-design practices that center and involve communities in an effort to acknowledge the harm that has already been done and to undo poorly designed social systems.
The Designed by Community Fellows Program
Ashley then dived into the details of the Designed by Community Fellowship program, including the shifting program design, implementation, and shifting goals of the program when Covid-19 affected the timeline of the original Fellowship model.
Prior to the pandemic, the original Fellowship model intended to place Fellows with living experience in a specific topic area with an existing government project (or initiative) that aimed to improve those related systems. For example, if a Fellow with previous experience accessing low-income child care programs was selected, we would match them with a project that aimed to improve child care access for low-income families. In the previous iteration, the Fellows would be matched to projects that aligned with their experience and expertise, and they would co-lead the projects with the Service Design Studio.
Covid-19, however, impacted not only the timeline of the program but also the scope and structure. Instead, the Service Design Studio co-designed the program during the pandemic with a community partner, TakeRoot Justice’s Equitable Neighborhoods practice area. Sophonie spoke about the practice area’s focus on securing stable, affordable housing, community spaces, jobs to make a good living and other opportunities that allow New Yorkers to thrive.
Through the iterative co-design process with TakeRoot Justice, the program implemented the following positive changes:
- Fellows were able to design their own projects, projects that will benefit the Fellow’s own community.
- Fellows are given: a living and learning stipend, community research incentive funds, and project funds — all so that the Fellow may see their project come to life.
- Fellowship teams lead all aspects of the project, with support from the Service Design Studio and TakeRoot Justice.
- Projects are ready to launch a first iteration in 6 months.
These changes were made in an effort to center the Fellows’ goals and prioritize their needs.
Ashley noted that the Fellowship program in its current iteration helps accomplish two things:
- It helps the Service Design Studio increase its capacity by bringing on a community partner organization and 13 Fellows.
- It brings five fully scoped and locally informed projects into the community.
Introducing the 5 Fellowship Teams
Kyla came into the presentation next to introduce the 2021 Designed by Community Fellowship cohort and their projects:
- HER Power —Is a women’s empowerment project that centers holistic wellbeing and promotes healing among female-identifying NYCHA residents.
- Community Action for Healthy Homes — Identifies residents with housing related health issues, and reports immediate health related needs and items for immediate repair.
- Technical Assistance for Organizers — Increases organizing and communications capacity for three NYCHA public housing developments in Manhattan and the Bronx.
- Rockaway On-Beat — Offers roller skating programs to youth and adults in NYCHA developments, and creates positive community spaces for different Rockaway NYCHA developments.
- From Blocks to Beats — Is a music mentoring program for medium to high risk young adults that integrates self-expression, healing, skills training, and sustained employment.
In addition to assisting the Fellows with Service Design concepts, the Service Design Studio has been providing support in the following areas:
- Technical needs
- Translation of concepts
- Time
- Group dynamics
Kyla emphasized that a lasting impression that this program makes is the increasing visibility of the community experts’ brilliance. The Fellow’s expertise not only drives the success of the program, but also ensures a lasting impact within the community.
Fellowship Panel with Marquis and Arabia
Marquis Jenkins and Arabia Simeon spoke about their experiences so far as Fellows in a panel discussion moderated by Sophonie.
Marquis Jenkins is a community organizer who has been organizing with public housing residents for 15 years. His experience has extended into leading community justice initiatives with the NAACP and environmental justice initiatives with WE ACT. He noted that the drastic income reductions amongst NYCHA residents has created a situation where there is a dire need for programs like Designed by Community. He noted that residents needed to be trained on Zoom and other technology in order to weather Covid-19, which led to his Fellowship project as a Technical Assistance for Organizers.
Arabia is a Fellow with the Blocks to Beats program. Arabia is an artist, designer, entrepreneur, and community organizer with a degree in computer science and studio art. Her passions are art, technology, and incorporating media into her projects, as well as giving back to her community. In addition to being a Fellow in the Blocks to Beats project, Arabia is also a Venture for America Fellow. She emphasized her feelings around seeing a music mentorship program come out of a neighborhood where she grew up and where she is acutely aware of the different issues and circumstances — to see a program that she is passionate about come to life in a neighborhood that she is passionate about.
The Fellowship Experience
Marquis and Arabia engaged in an insightful conversation with Sophonie about how their relationship with design and community-based leadership has changed and grown throughout the Fellowship.
When they reflected on their relationship with design, Marquis noted that to him, design is about intentionality and creating a plan. To Arabia, design has been a process and a mindset where she thinks about the ‘why' and about equity and empathy.
But in thinking about how their relationship with design shifted or grew over the course of the Fellowship, Arabia noted that the program has expanded her understanding of accessibility, equity, and the language of service design. She recalls that the way the program truly centers the community has reaffirmed the community organizing work that she has done thus far. Marquis agreed — the Fellowship program doesn’t center a problem, it centers the people and understanding them first. Marquis added that he has appreciated the shift from ‘fighting fires' as a community organizer to having dedicated time and space to deep dive into his design projects and gain a deep understanding of methods like interviews.
Sophonie shifted the conversation to community: how do the Fellows see the communities practicing design?
Marquis started by saying that public housing developments are at a critical point where redesign is on the table, but the residents need to determine what the future of public housing will be. He noted that he cannot use the same tools that designed public housing to redesign it, and therefore the new solutions need to come from the community and residents. Arabia seconded the critical timing of her programming in Blocks to Beats. She noted that the program has momentum, and positive iterations can keep the program going.
And lastly, Sophonie rounded out the conversation with a point about the future: how will the Fellows define and use design in the future?
Marquis lightly quipped: as cheesy as it sounds, I hope it becomes a way of life! But in seriousness, he hopes that public housing residents will become the future owners of public housing, to become fully community centered. Arabia agreed, adding that design is becoming more of a lifestyle and a way of thinking, that can be applied toward everything in life. She hopes that these community and equity centered methods can be applied to the likes of housing, politics, and governance to better serve. Both Marquis and Arabia see their future professional lives integrating the service design practices they are using today.
Check out the recording for the full conversation and the engaging Q&A session!
Resources from the Conversation:
Resources:
Designed by Community Program Guide (PDF)
Announcing the 2021 Designed by Community Fellowship (Blog announcement, January 2021)
How the Service Design Studio created the Designed by Community Fellowship (Blog)
Be a friend of the Designed by Community Fellowship Form
Service Design Studio at the Mayor’s Office Tools & Tactics
Find Us/Learn more:
Service Design Studio at the NYC Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity
Twitter and Instagram: @NYCOpportunity
TakeRoot Justice
Twitter: @TakerootNYC
Facebook: @TakeRootJustice
Speakers:
Ashley Cortez (she/they): Product and Design Strategist, Service Design Studio, NYC Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity
Mari Nakano (she/her): Design Director, Service Design Studio, NYC Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity
Sophonie Milande Joseph, PhD (she/her): Community Planner & Advocacy Coordinator, Equitable Neighborhoods practice area of TakeRoot Justice
Kyla Massey (she/they): Program Designer and Coordinator, NYC Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity, Service Design Studio
Marquis Jenkins (he/him): Designed by Community Fellow
Arabia Simeon (she/they): Designed by Community Fellow
Find this content interesting or useful? Follow the SDN New York Chapter on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and/or Medium to stay connected. Anyone is welcome to join their Meetup group and events. You can also find them on the global Service Design Network website — learn more about the larger SDN community there as well.
