Community Design Partners

At Community Design Partners, they help organizations make lasting change within their communities. Driven by the vision of a just and equitable world, their work centers on these beliefs:  They believe in communities. They center the aspirations, perspectives, and strengths of community members. They work alongside communities to support their vision, rather than offering outside solutions. They believe that there is no single solution to a complex problem. Effective change requires an understanding of all of the root causes of a problem and the systems that perpetuate those conditions. They know that to disrupt the status quo they must change systems, not individuals. They believe in curiosity. They ask questions, collect information, and adapt plans based on what they learn from both success and failure. They believe teams must continuously examine both implementation and outcomes. And, they believe work should be fun.   Through coaching and facilitation, they work with teams to deeply understand a problem, collaboratively design solutions, and measure implementation and outcomes. Specifically, they support teams to: ​Operationalize their equity goals Identify a systemic problem and its root causes Collaboratively develop and test system changes Measure implementation and outcomes Scale and spread success ​Their approach draws from the mindsets and tools of design thinking, human-centered design and improvement science. Rather than a rigid step-by-step process, they tailor their services to meet the needs of each local context. They take a strengths-based approach in all that they do and help teams do the same. Teams from community-based organizations, education, and philanthropy hire them to facilitate, coach, and advise them as they tackle complex problems. For example, they: ​Facilitate and coach teams engaged in an improvement project Customize improvement academies to build capacity Help teams plan and implement community engagement and outreach Support strong implementation Advise and coach leaders