Shifting Away from Practitioner-Centered Toward Community-Lead

Happy Service Design Day from the SDN New York Chapter! What is Service Design Day? SDD is a global event to bring people from different backgrounds, disciplines, and organizations across the globe celebrate service design, raise awareness and create impact in the world around us: https://www.service-design-network.org/sdday This year we are featuring the Designed by Community program team from the NYC Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity Service Design Studio along with a presentation from one of the program’s fellows about their project to better connect NYCHA organizers in the digital age.

COVID-19 disrupted everything from the ground up for communities and our local government’s approach to disaster relief. Now with the pandemic as a background, we will explore how service designers can bend the arc of their work in order to create sustainable, equitable, and community-led approaches in recovery and hereafter.

This talk will explore:

+ How the NYC Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity Service Design Studio’s pivoted towards a more community-led approach to their Designed by Community program
+ What the Designed by Community fellowship teams are working on, with a moderated discussion from two of the participating fellows about their work with NYCHA and their lens on Design
+ How we can position ourselves as service designers to move our body of work towards a community-led approach
+ What we’ve learned through the process of decentralizing ourselves as praxis