Design Impact

Last week, Director of Strategy, Impact, and Design for Liberation, Sarah Robertson, joined an incredible panel at the Engagement Scholarship Consortium conference, where the conversation went deep on what it really means to center communities in research. We're grateful to our partners at Oklahoma State University and AcademyHealth for this vital conversation.

Some powerful insights from the day:

▪️ Shared interest is the greatest enabler of collective change

▪️ It's not enough to anticipate what's needed; we need to be ready to get out of the way and shift full creative control to communities

▪️ Art is healing, and a valid research method

▪️ Budgets are moral documents

▪️ When communities own research, we build the fabric for stronger communities while organizing ourselves around the needed changes to the system

And this compelling insight: "Just because it's soft doesn't mean it's not powerful; a feather falls lightly but lands heavy."

Want to talk more about art as healing and building capacity for community-led research? Reach out, we'd love to connect! 💬

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"We are living through a period of upheaval. In this world of uncertainty, one thing is clear: The need for coordinated, collective action is urgent."

At Design Impact, we see this in our work by bridging differences through inclusive design processes that bring diverse voices together, and co-creating the equitable futures our communities deserve.

The Block-Bridge-Build framework offers a powerful lens for how we can approach community-centered design and social change.

This article reminds us that transformation isn't just about opposing what's wrong; it's about creating authentic relationships across difference and co-designing solutions that center justice.

Worth the read for anyone working at the intersection of design, democracy, and social change.

Read more: https://nonprofitquarterly.org/block-bridge-and-build-a-framework-to-forge-a-more-democratic-future/

Grappling with a complicated social issue you need help sorting through? Reach out to us at [email protected]

Block, Bridge, and Build: A Framework to Forge a More Democratic Future - Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly Amid rising authoritarianism, people in US-based movements need to work together in new ways. Here are some diverse approaches to help guide collective action.

🚨 Publication alert! 🚨

Our work designing and facilitating the Community Research for Health Equity (CRHE) cohort is featured in Stanford Social Innovation Review

Congrats to our project partners at RWJFoundation and AcademyHealth on a powerful article, “Let Communities Lead Research.”

This article offers vital insights for how philanthropy can evolve to truly support community-driven research by removing barriers, rethinking traditional grantmaking, and trusting communities to define their own research priorities and solutions.

Shouts out to Academy Health’s CRHE collaborative team, DI’s Curtis Webb, PhD & Sarah Strassel Robertson, RWJF, and especially the community organizations leading this vital research. This is what equitable research looks like. 👏🏽 👏 👏🏾

Read the whole piece to learn more about how we can transform research to serve justice and community empowerment: https://bit.ly/4lutsv3

Let Communities Lead Research (SSIR) Funders who care about justice should enable communities to lead their own research projects. | Open access to this article made possible by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation