During this program, participants will learn about effective community engagement and anti-oppressive facilitation from CUP and other leaders in the community-engaged design field. Participants will get peer feedback and one-on-one coaching as they implement a community-engaged design project, and build a community of practitioners to support ongoing work in the field.

Design for Civic Change is for people working within city, state, regional, or tribal governments in the United States, who work directly with marginalized communities in a planning, service-delivery, or design role. To support the successful implementation of the skills and knowledge learned during the program, applicants are asked to apply as teams of two to three individuals working in the same agency or program. Throughout the program, these teams will workshop a specific project at their agency or an issue affecting their constituents and will create an implementation plan. 

After the program, participants will be able to deepen their work with new techniques for stakeholder analysis, facilitating design conversations, communicating complex ideas in accessible ways, and addressing bias. They’ll also be able to equitably center marginalized communities in their work, and build confidence and trust within the communities they work in.

Learn more about the program and apply here! We also hosted a webinar where we talked about the program and answered any questions. Check out the video here.

All applications are due by 11:59pm Eastern time on Monday, June 20, 2022.  

To apply, you will need to create an account on Submittable. Making an account will take no more than 2 minutes. Once you have an account, you’ll be able to answer the application questions. You’ll also need to upload a current resume for each member of your group and a letter of support from your government agency. 

Please note that we will NOT review applications that do not provide all requested materials. No phone calls, please.