Crafting a Space in Colorado for Young Designers of Color to Thrive
In our Fellowship Series, we feature stories and work from Moonshot Fellows. The Moonshot Fellowship allows individuals to explore designing and launching a new learning environment, such as a new school or program.
In the post below, Aleiya Evison (Moonshot Fellow, Cohort 6) reflects on her experience in the Cultivate stage of the Fellowship. In this stage, Moonshot Fellows go through a “boot camp” of content in January focused on budgeting, recruitment, program evaluation, and people leadership, and they work on piloting their ideas via two rounds of full-day pilots with the community they aim to serve. Each Fellow has an opportunity to lead and manage other Fellows, and plan the necessary logistics needed to execute one round of pilots. Through their Pilots, Fellows test their most risky assumptions for their venture model, try their hand at operations and people management, and engage students and families in the launch of their ventures.
Aleiya Evison, founder of Collective Design Lab, Reflects on Her Pilot with the Moonshot Fellowship
My mission for Collective Design Lab is to create an ecosystem in Colorado for young designers of color to thrive and lead the field in design justice. At the crossroads of design, storytelling, and healing justice, Collective Design Lab is committed to imagining new realities for our communities.
I fell in love with design when I was an Ethnic Studies student at the University of Oregon. I saw design as a tool to tangibly create the conditions for equity and justice, which led me to explore a career in design and urban planning.
Introducing My Pilot: Designing Sustainable Futures
I previously ran a workshop that was more broadly focused on justice, including climate, racial, and housing justice, and I was excited to take a deep dive into one subject. I invited students, faculty, and staff from regional schools (University of Colorado, Denver and Boulder, Metropolitan State University (MSU) of Denver, and community colleges) to engage in a design justice workshop.
I was curious to see if participants wanted to collaborate on an experiential collaging activity, visualizing design solutions on a team across discipline, age, and background. This was especially important to me, as I am working to build out a fellowship for young designers of color who represent these different intersections.
Learning from Moonshot
During the Cultivate phase of the Moonshot Fellowship, we had the opportunity and challenge to train a facilitator to deliver our content. I was hopeful about testing my ability to successfully recruit and train one current student or facilitator well-versed in climate justice. My intention was for this facilitator to actively lead the session with presence and energy.
As a leader, I also wanted to test my ability to delegate and manage the process using the MOCHA process. I learned about this method in January during our Moonshot “boot camp” in a workshop with the Management Center.
Time to Gather
Participants gathered for a 2-hour workshop rooted in climate and design justice, led by guest facilitator Marianne Shiple of the Climate Justice Collaborative.
In the first half, participants engaged in a series of reflections, learned about a glossary of terms connected to climate and design justice, and explored guiding principles of design justice. One principle that participants were excited to engage with from the Design Justice Network was, “We use design to sustain, heal, and empower our communities, as well as to seek liberation from exploitative and oppressive systems.”
During the second half of the workshop, folks engaged in small, collaborative groups to learn about a climate justice challenge. They chose two design justice principles they wanted to apply to the challenge and then visualized their team’s solution to the challenge using collage.
I absolutely loved the diversity of ages and backgrounds that we had in the space. One participant brought her 12-year-old daughter, and neither of them had ever engaged with design before, so it was amazing to hear their perspectives and willingness to be open to playing with the concepts.
A Powerful & Beautiful Experience
It was wonderful to engage with the participants. I walked away feeling excited and hopeful about the possibilities for the design field in Denver and beyond because the group showed up with such curiosity and brilliance. One participant shared that the workshop felt "Uplifting, educational, collaborative, and creative." Another said, "I was amazed and felt welcomed."
In their post-pilot surveys, all participants expressed that the workshop was a great use of their time, with many expressing interest in future opportunities. I was proud that they felt they had an understanding of the core concepts of this work, such as 1) the Collective Design Pedagogy (collective history, shared values, and imaginative futures), and 2) Design Justice Principles (not only knowing them, but being able to apply them). I hoped the workshop would be equally engaging for students that were already in a design program and students who were just learning about design as a potential path.
I discovered how it is powerful and beautiful to invite folks from different disciplines into design work. We had a translator, information sciences students, and architecture students in attendance. The conversation, imagination, and sense of community were informed by these different backgrounds.
I had the opportunity to grow as a leader, too. The opportunity to work with Marianne was an awesome experience and helped me more deeply internalize the critical skill of delegation and trust in others. This experience helped me envision and feel how the creativity and input of others will strengthen my venture, and I look forward to continuing to collaborate with community partners and guest facilitators in the coming year!
“Uplifting, educational, collaborative and creative”
Lessons Learned
One of my biggest learnings was to invest in making my language and content accessible to different audiences. It’s important to me that design as a tool is democratized--that community members have the agency to co-design our communities. This means that my public-facing workshops need to be accessible so that there are entry points for all community members to feel welcome.
Moving forward, I am excited to build out a curriculum for different workshops and really focus on that accessibility piece. I want to offer programming publicly to community members and for folks who are further in their design careers. In the future, I will be testing these different types of curriculum.
What’s Next & Getting Connected
This fall, I am running another round of Designing Just Futures workshops in partnership with the Environmental Center at CU Boulder. The workshops are designed for students of all majors to explore climate, housing, and racial justice.
I am also excited to share that I am joining Radian, a nonprofit architecture and design firm here in Denver. As the Design Justice Project Manager, I will continue my work in equitable design on projects such as the 303 Artway in NE Parkhill, the Registered Neighborhood Organizations (RNO) Equity Toolkit, and by creating spaces for community through public workshops at Radian's co-working space, BUILD.
If you know any college and graduate students of color and/or early-career professionals who might be interested in learning more about design justice, I would love to connect with them! You can check out my website at www.collectivedesignlab.com, or email me at aleiya.addie@gmail.com