How might Design practices function as inclusive strategies to support Community participation in design and development of community focussed initiatives?

Too often, people with little understanding of their contexts make decisions that affect people and communities. Three speakers will present projects where inclusive strategies have been used to support Community participation in design and development of place-based initiatives that affect them.

Jax Wechsler from Sticky Design Studio will present a place-based project where she worked with an indigenous run NGO in Lismore to engage community to support community-led initiatives within a social housing estate. She utilised co-design, Asset-Based Community Development and Systems Thinking approaches for this work.

David Lilley from Holos Consulting and Mitra Gusheh from UTS will discuss GlebeConnected who are a group of passionate individuals and organisations who share the goal of a socially sustainable Glebe. They are drawing on collective impact, strengths based community work, appreciative inquiry, and co-design to develop projects relating to ageing, early childhood development, and the transition from primary to high school. David and Mitra will talk about the formative stage of the initiative, including the methods used, the challenges that needed to be overcome, and progress to date.