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This morning, I’m speaking at @AIASeattle’s 2020 Community Engagement Forum, which, this year, is about “Establishing Meaningful Relationships with Communities You Serve.”
Live tweeting my own presentation for the first time ever! Here goes nothing. https://twitter.com/AIASeattle/status/1316121745682821122
Live tweeting my own presentation for the first time ever! Here goes nothing. https://twitter.com/AIASeattle/status/1316121745682821122
It’s probably one of my favorite presentations I put together because it’s just one giant homage to a bunch of brilliant individuals whose writings continue to shape my thinking about my own design, research, and facilitation practice.
Here are 12 lessons I've learned from them.
Here are 12 lessons I've learned from them.
One of the things @acarrolldesign talks and writes about a lot is centering lived experience, and "the reality of being embedded."
How can we ensure that the individuals and communities most affected by the outcomes of our work are the ones in charge of influencing them?
How can we ensure that the individuals and communities most affected by the outcomes of our work are the ones in charge of influencing them?
One of my aha moments this year came from @schock, and this prompt now lives rent-free in my head:
How can we shift towards contributing our skills and resources to community-led processes, instead of seeking community participation in processes that we initiate and control?
How can we shift towards contributing our skills and resources to community-led processes, instead of seeking community participation in processes that we initiate and control?
One of the things I appreciate from the writings of @multiplyequity is the importance of taking a systems thinking approach.
How can we build a more robust understanding of the hegemonic institutional, structural, and historic forces at play in the communities with whom we work?
How can we build a more robust understanding of the hegemonic institutional, structural, and historic forces at play in the communities with whom we work?
I learned about the concept of critical reflexivity from reading Research as Resistance by Susan Strega and Leslie Brown.
How can we embed the uncomfortable, ongoing process of critical reflexivity in our practices to uncover and challenge the assumptions embedded in ourselves?
How can we embed the uncomfortable, ongoing process of critical reflexivity in our practices to uncover and challenge the assumptions embedded in ourselves?
. @georgeaye's piece on the role of power in design education was seminal in acknowledging how design has often ignored power.
How can we recognize and shift power differentials, prioritizing the safety and well-being of marginalized people over the comfort of privileged people?
How can we recognize and shift power differentials, prioritizing the safety and well-being of marginalized people over the comfort of privileged people?
Another thing I loved in "Research as Resistance" was Margaret Kovach's where she discusses relationship-based research.
How can we structure engagements with communities in a relational praxis that aims to minimize extraction, and address issues of ownership and accountability?
How can we structure engagements with communities in a relational praxis that aims to minimize extraction, and address issues of ownership and accountability?
I'm still making my way through @kellyanagram's new book, but their point around offering hospitality as a core mindset of co-design really resonated.
How can we extend hospitality to ensure communities feel appreciated, supported, welcome, and that they can come as they are?
How can we extend hospitality to ensure communities feel appreciated, supported, welcome, and that they can come as they are?
There are so many nuggets of wisdom in Linda Tuhiwai Smith's Decolonizing Methodologies, but this one stood out:
How can we join in celebrating communities’ survival and acts of resistance rather than contributing to and perpetuating narratives of their problems and downfall?
How can we join in celebrating communities’ survival and acts of resistance rather than contributing to and perpetuating narratives of their problems and downfall?
For a long time, I wondered what it would mean to build accessible and caring engagements with communities. Reading @brownstargirl's words has been so thought-provoking in that regard.
How can we fight against ableism and build communities of care where no one is left behind?
How can we fight against ableism and build communities of care where no one is left behind?
Some of you know I've taken an interest in learning more about trauma. Reading @shawnginwright's reframing from a trauma-informed to healing-centered approach got me wondering:
How can we move start to understand the ways in which trauma and healing are experienced collectively?
How can we move start to understand the ways in which trauma and healing are experienced collectively?
Reading Andrew J. Jolivétte's "Research Justice" cemented the idea that we should give back to communities, not just in the outcomes, but also in the process itself.
How can we ensure that the processes we support aim produce better materials conditions for community members?
How can we ensure that the processes we support aim produce better materials conditions for community members?
Lastly, thinking about white supremacy as a trauma response, per @ResmaaMenakem's analysis, and seeing how white supremacy culture shows up in our practices:
How can we actively fight against the norms and standards of white supremacy culture in our work and our organizations?
How can we actively fight against the norms and standards of white supremacy culture in our work and our organizations?
This important framework (shared by @CRXLAB!) helps break down the characteristics of white supremacy culture, which I've been thinking about non-stop since.
https://twitter.com/sfath/status/1273681298700156928
Which of these characteristics are at play in our work? What are we doing to shift them?
https://twitter.com/sfath/status/1273681298700156928
Which of these characteristics are at play in our work? What are we doing to shift them?
What other lessons/approaches have I missed?
Who has informed your thinking in the way you engage communities?
(And by asking these questions I’m really just crowdsourcing a reading list because… the stack waiting for me on my nightstand is finally starting to dwindle?)
Who has informed your thinking in the way you engage communities?
(And by asking these questions I’m really just crowdsourcing a reading list because… the stack waiting for me on my nightstand is finally starting to dwindle?)
