Community Driven Innovation: Makers Residency
A multi-week residency — consisting of program innovation and design workshops — that supports representatives from small community based organizations that do not typically have access to larger grants or investments.
Health Leads R&D is committed to creating spaces where people who are most impacted by health inequities are supported as leaders of change and innovation, as makers of a just future. The Makers Residency draws inspiration from both early stage incubators and artists residencies; we affirm that people already understand the problems they face and have the capacity for developing solutions but simply need time, space, and support beyond the daily demands of individual and organizational survival.
The Makers Residency is a multi-week residency that supports representatives from small community based organizations that do not typically have access to larger grants or investments. Makers will have the opportunity to connect with one another and with coaches to ultimately produce calls to action for the kinds of innovation that are necessary to make real the equitable futures, stemming from communities’ own imaginations. The experience affirms traditional principles like user-centered participatory design, democratic self-determination, and artistic expression to reimagine futures even more boldly by entering community members as Makers.
Hypotheses
Funded time is a key barrier to community leaders articulating the spaces needed for innovation
Incubators focusing on community leaders (vs technological or business imagination and capability) produce more salient and relevant calls for innovation
Currently seeking funding partners
Currently seeking beta testers for initial cohort launching in Spring 2023 representing three community based organizations with at least a proven track record of partnering with people with lived experience in designing services and systems
Partners
Next Steps
Document findings from landscape scan
Document scope of ideal Makers (intended audience for Residency) & other key stakeholders (eg, faculty to support as coaches, investors, etc)
Complete beta design and launch recruitment for beta test
Goals
To create time and space for people who deeply understand the problems that BIPOC communities face and therefore can best identify the most ideal spaces for innovation
Invest in community leaders through funded time in the Makers Residence (passthrough grant funding)
Demonstrate a community driven approach to structuring an early stage incubator for problem identification and calls to action for allies (eg, investors, technologists, etc) to support solutions directed by communities