In a nutshell
We employ co-design as a pervasive method to deliberately democratise our service through a transformative process that enables equitable power structures amongst key stakeholders.
What we mean by pervasive
We view co-design as pervasive because it is a central part of our thinking in everything we do. We do not employ human centered design because we have lived experience of how easily that can be corrupted to become provider led. Instead we have created a climate of learning where our day to day participants (staff, volunteers, local community members, children, parents) decide whether we are heading in the direction they want in a way that is acceptable to them. It is both the means and the ends that we co-design.
What we mean by methods
We employ specialist techniques to nurture skills, attitudes and behaviours that enable our exceptionally productive, inclusive and purposeful climate of learning. However, creating a climate of learning where everyone contributes isn't enough for our community because sometimes, the children we work with feel peer influences are more important than their own judgements. So we facilitate deliberate and purposeful consultation to explore, verify and validate decision making. This consultation is continuous and forms part of our continuous improvement cycle and evolving approach to building our community of practice. Our methods are centered on utilising strong developmental relationships. So, we take time to get to know people. We don't use sanctions and don't have a zero tolerance policy.
What we mean by democratise
Democratisation for our community is about everyone having real choices about where we go and how we get there. As a result we have a wealth of ideas and experiences from our vibrant and diverse community that we value and celebrate whenever possible. We are particularly sensitive to people who have barriers to taking part in design. So, to build conditions for their participation and embed participation and lived experience in our everyday practice; we go to great lengths to hire professionals with lived experience of the challenges they face. Sometimes people direct those professionals on both means and ends. Sometimes, people place trust in them to lead toward specific, personal or academic goals they have chosen, and on that journey to empower and equip them to lead themselves. We usually reach consensus, as a community, through dialogue but sometimes it requires more in depth work. Our pervasive methods for achieving democratization can sometimes be uncomfortable because we often need to flex, rapidly reconfiguring very limited tangible resources to meet changing needs. With income uncertainty (short term funding and trading on the open market) we employ highly developed managerial skills to develop our assets and infrastructure to support the goal attainment objectives of our communities.
What we mean by equitable power structures
Equitable power means that we build conditions for design work to take place so that we understand the strengths and capacities of our community, what local people need to be included and stay included. We work holistically with families to ensure that there is open, transparent communication and everyone has equal opportunity to influence what we do and how we do it. Our participants (parents, children, volunteers) use clear structures (our consultation framework) to hold each other to account . Where we fail we learn quickly so that we can improve. We have clear methods for ensuring equitable power sharing between professionals hired to facilitate and people with lived experience of the challenges our communities face. Our mindset is that everyone in our community is capable so if people face barriers we work hard to overcome them together. Subsequently, over the past 18 months, we have launched five additional co-designed services on a shoe-string budget. These include various youth clubs, a food provision and a chartable giving function. Nobody in our community is short of the equipment they need to participate, hunger or nutrition are not barriers to participation and everyone has access to personalised support to develop their contributions towards goals they have chosen.