Episode #1 Equitable Community Engagement
Featuring Danita Reese, Deputy Director of Strategic Design, and Andrea Ngan, Community Co Design Practice Lead for the City of Philadelphia Service Design Studio
Danita Reese and Andrea Ngan spent four years building the Equitable Community Engagement toolkit — a living, breathing source of information guiding the City of Philadelphia on practicing equitable community engagement.
Andrea defined design as a process of making with thoughtful intention and consideration and with care.
Danita defined design as where imagination, planning, and creation meet.
My Key Takeaways.
1. Be In community, showing up, asking for nothing, being helpful, listening with no agenda, and creating space to absorb and observe
2. Recognize the role you play as representing an institution that has and continues to cause harm as a member of the city government
3. Be explicit and clear with people following up and creating open lines of communication
4. Prioritize those who are often excluded, not prioritized, and left out through new ways outside of institutions, such as going to grocery stores, looking at bulletins, attending block parties, etc.
5. Empathize with your colleagues, recognizing the structural limitations that have been placed on them