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1. Designers need to understand the relationship between what they produce and the meaning their product has for others.
- I found the products designed for CSM welcome packs          lacked humanity and lost the meaning of welcome, we didn't    feel put at ease.

2. Ethnography offers a way to make sense of this complexity. It lets us see beyond our preconceptions and immerse ourselves in the world of others.
- Rather than simply interviewing we are utilising our experiance and observations that are honest and true. We need to collect and observe ourselves and others and be free of perception to produce work that is understandable and relatable.

3. Design is a social process with social outcomes

4. We neednt search for sources, there are sources all around us.

5. We define co-design as "an approach that centres around the idea that people who are affected by a decision, event or product should have an opportunity to influence it."

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Week 1 Required Reading: “Decolonizing Means Many Things to Many People”

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Week 1 Required Reading: “Decolonizing Means Many Things to Many People”

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Decolonisation of design is such a hard thing to understand as it means something different to different people.. The way in which we experiance and understand the world can never be the same and with something like this our experiences define the change we want. The decolonisation of design can mean centring native voices, making space, taking space, acknowledging, shifting glance and giving agency. But most importantly it is not one thing and not just around or affected by design We need to be flexible and we need to be considerate.
'Decolonizing is about unearthing, shifting the glance, de-centering, giving agency, being vulnerable, making mistakes, ideation, thinking about our communities, and not so much design.'
Design is propagated by those in power and privilege and we need to break away from this to truly decolonise design. We are stuck in boundaries and categories that restrict us.

'In these definitions, sometimes design is an instrument of colonization, or sometimes it’s design that has been colonized.'

To decolonize design we need to listen, we need to experiance and we need to research. Intruding on spaces propagates these colonial ideals we are trying to escape. Building relationships is the best way to encourage understanding. We need to continuingly critique the world of design and our processes to ensure constant growth.
In many ways this a wicked problem and the make observe reflect approach would be beneficial. We need to use to understand where we are and what's working and what isn't. The nuances of this issue will evolve and so we must keep up with them. We need to work and grow with this and build relationships of understanding and experiance.

Relating this back to what we are doing now I feel I need to be much more aware of the position I hold in the situation of starting university as someone who has already lived in London for a year but still struggles with anxiety. In making people feel seen and at ease I also feel more aware of the importance of observation and recognition of position in understanding differing experiance which will enable use to produce work that really listens and is able to be humorous and relatable in a way that is helpful.

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Last year, I wrote an article for Eye on Design that asked what decolonization means in the context of design . The piece explores ideas of decolonizing design labor, differentiating the term from diversity, and dismantling the Eurocentric historical design canon. The work designers make is inspired by their taste, and taste is often derived from what we're exposed to during our upbringing. Therefore, one way to think about "decolonizing design" is as the process of eliminating false distinctions between craft and design, in order to recognize all culturally important forms of making.

The difficulty with a concept like decolonization, though, is that it means different things to different people in different places. Colonialism has manifested in so many different ways around the world. For some, decolonizing is a project of de-centering the perspectives of settlers to emphasize those of the indigenous; others focus on decolonization as a process of recovery and the restoration of identity; still others use the term to critique Eurocentrism and modernism. All the concept's varied, interconnected meanings have different implications when considered in the context of design. And because one crucial part of the process of decolonization is recognizing diversity of thought, we decided to bring together a range of practitioners from communities with differing colonial histories for a roundtable discussion on the topic.

Speaking across multiple time zones-and over Skype rather than at an actual table-I connected with graphic designer Neebinnaukzhik Southall in Sante Fe, New Mexico; designer and educator Ramon Tejada in Providence, Rhode Island; designer and educator Miguel Navarro Sanint in Bogota, Colombia; and designer and educator in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Our discussion spanned topics such as the power of collectivity, the designer "god complex," Black Panther as design model, and the idea of "making for mom." I asked my interviewees to begin by introducing themselves.
What does decolonization mean to you in the context of design?
Southall: For me as an indigenous person, it's about centering Native voices. When we talk about design as part of this bigger picture, what does that mean for Native people? What does it mean for reclaiming our cultures? The "design" part is just one part of an overall effort that we're doing as Native peoples.

Tejada: Decolonizing means many things to many people. I was born in the Dominican Republic, which is the place where, supposedly, the "New World" was "discovered." It's a place where the Native peoples (primarily the Taino) and their culture are essentially extinct, as they were slaughtered and colonized, forced to submit to Spanish rule or die. The culture that exists in the Dominican Republic now (of which I consider myself a descendant) is a hybrid of Spanish, African, and the tiny bit of Taino that survived. It's been an education thinking about decolonization in this layered, complicated context.

Sometimes, decolonizing is about making space. Sometimes it's about taking space. Decolonizing is about acknowledging the ideas and land which were stolen and repressed. It's about giving up space and thinking responsibility. In an education context, this means not just teaching Northern American and European references, but thinking about diversity of lineages. Decolonizing is about unearthing, shifting the glance, de-centering, giving agency, being vulnerable, making mistakes, ideation, thinking about our communities, and not so much design.

Decolonizing is about unearthing, shifting the glance, de-centering, giving agency, being vulnerable, making mistakes, ideation, thinking about our communities, and not so much design.

Wu: In Holland, design education is still propagating modernist ideas and is very invested in Western enlightenment thinking. Categories have been established, like male versus female, abstraction versus lived experience, Western versus Non Western, rational versus emotional. These binaries affect how students make work, [as one tends to be deemed more valuable than the other]. As a teacher trying to disrupt this, I'm literally trying to mend the ruptures between binaries. I'm also interested in the word "mend" and reclaiming that word, which has been traditionally deemed inferior. It belongs to the realm of craft, and is associated with female labor. I use the word "mend" to describe literally and figuratively how to move forward with divides.

Sanint: In this context [of Colombia], it's almost impossible to put a line between what is colonized and what isn't. When I work with people in the countryside, sometimes it's difficult to recognize the difference between their original [agricultural] practices, and those that were imposed by someone else.

[In the context of design,] it's Chinese, European, and American designs that are available here, and so we only get the products they've designed. Colonization comes in the forms of products, in this case, rather than design work practices being colonized.
In these definitions, sometimes design is an instrument of colonization, or sometimes it's design that has been colonized.
Tejada: This is where language gets tricky. If we say "design," I tend to think of Design with a capital "D" as being a European thing. I heard somebody say once that you can't teach any other Design history because Europeans created, or "discovered," design. It's like okay-just like you discovered America? Great... What a lot of us are interested in doing is thinking about lowercase design.

Most of us come from cultures that have thousands of years of tradition. But certain people decided that Design with a capital D is going to focus on the last one hundred years. If something from a culture fits in with that framework and definition, it's Design and goes in a museum. If not, too bad.

Southall: In many Native cultures in North America, things are made to have a purpose, which makes these things design. For instance, a basket is beautiful and it's made to hold things-and it is communicating a message. There can be symbology that is very deep and means a lot of different things across different cultures, and it's a matter of re-contextualizing that, instead of thinking about something as an anthropological item. How many graphic design dissertations are looking at the iconography of a tribe and how it's shaping the designers that are here?

Unlearning the God Complex

Wu: I wanted to speak about class difference, as it's an important part of this conversation. When we go to art schools and get an elite education, we automatically say, "our design is better than yours."

The person that taught me about this discrepancy in how we value aesthetics was my mother. She runs a mending shop, and she recently asked me to make her a [business] card. If she had asked me a few years ago, I would have made her something clean, modernist, and hipster; something that I felt was elevating her to a standard that would get her more customers. But I've learned to look at design through her perspective-her non-elitist, local, diaspora aesthetic-and it's been an un-learning process for me.

My mother led me through [the process of] designing her card. The aesthetic of the card really mirrored the interior decoration of her shop. It's infused with feng shui principle-this value system of seeing order in the universe-and it's imbued with this potentiality of a self-fulfilling prophecy. This collaborative approach is very looked down upon here in Europe.
Do you think that designers have a god complex?
Tejada: Yeah! We're super smart, many of us have spent a lot of money on our education, we like certain things, we have some big economically determined biases [around taste] even if we're poor as crap, which a lot of us are. Design has taught us to concentrate everything into these sleek clean things, which usually is not what most of our cultures look like. The reality of everything is incredibly complicated, diverse, beautiful, messy.

Unlearning the idea of what we elevate, as designers and teachers, forms a lot of this conversation. bell hooks mentions that the older you get, the worse unlearning becomes, because you're so embedded and fixed in your ways. To unlearn the body of knowledge that you have, with all the money you spent on it, is hard to swallow.

Southall: With mainstream designers, there's definitely an ego problem, and there's a lot of personal glory. I have an ego, too. I would like to have work that I can be proud of, but you do have to put your ego to the side if you're working with diverse communities.

As an indigenous person, when I'm interacting with other indigenous people, I have to be humble because there are things I don't know about their cultures. You have to be a good listener, a diplomat. Of course you'll have a particular skill set, but to assume that you know exactly what to do is arrogance.
It has to be a collaborative process, to be a good designer in a decolonized sense.
Sanint: When I was a student, I was taught to create something that was "mine." Now, I can't remember the last time I created something as only mine. I was part of something, I feel proud of it, but I feel it collectively-as in, did this.

There's a project I worked on where we had to drive for six hours to get to a certain place. There's a driver who always brings us there-and he's part of the team. The project wouldn't be possible without him. And he participates in all the sessions we have in the field, too. My practice is to create spaces in which everyone can participate. I design the tools, space, and strategy, so this group of people can co-design together. And I have to share those achievements with the participants.

My practice is to create spaces in which everyone can participate.

Wu: At art and design schools in Holland, there's this culture of grooming individual genius. There's a priority on ushering in an individualistic approach to design, which is also how the capitalist design framework has allowed it to flourish.

Sanint: One of the basics of capitalism is patents: the idea that you own an idea. I've had students who preferred to have their idea patented, and have this piece of paper, than be able to execute their project in real life, because to them it's better to own something than to achieve something with what they've created. When you start discussing ownership, people prefer to keep ideas hidden and that's problematic, because change happens when you share. Everything you create is a product of everything that everyone has created before. By giving credit accordingly, it's a way of showing that everyone is bringing something valuable to the product.

Tejada: There's a lot of design studios with names that are a single designer's. Particularly Western cultures love looking at the individual. It's not about the collective, the society at large, your neighbors, your family.

The Master's Tools

Will Never Dismantle The Master's House

Does anyone have a good example of a design project that's a useful model, in terms of something we can work towards when we think about decolonizing design?
Tejada: What has been helpful for me has been the readings that I've been engaging with recently. I mention bell hooks, particularly Teaching to Transgress . There's a book called How Art Can be Thought: A Handbook for Change , by Alan D'Souza. In this book, he begins to critique this binary that art education has put itself under, saying what's good and what's bad.

Sanint: There's a project [I've been taking part in] in Montes de Maria, based in el Carmen de Bolivar, with special focus on El Salado. The area was really affected by violence and deforestation. For the project, we work collectively with local communities that live in the region, and [in partnership] with Fondo Patrimonio Natural and Crepes and Waffles. We involved [the communities] in the project, so that the people from the area felt like they owned what we made together-we called the project Wisdom From The Forest ( Saber del Monte). If they decide to actually use the strategy we developed together, it will because they find value in it, rather than us colonizing the space.

Southall: There's something to be said for two people coming together and having an exchange. Native people have agency like any other group of people interacting with other groups and adopting various aesthetics. Of course power structures, colonization, and forced assimilation have majorly impacted us and our abilities to make choices, but throughout history to the present we have also made informed choices in what we adopt. Especially when you look at individuals coming together in a situation where there's more equal give and take happening. So a part of decolonization is recognizing our agency to make choices according to our values.

And often, it's about how people approach relationships: Is there respect there, is there sharing?

Sanint: The idea of agency was one of our biggest discussions during a project in the Amazon Piedmont. [This took place] in Guacamayas, a town in the municipality of San Vicente del Caguán, a former DMZ (demilitarized zone) where the FARC had control over the territory. The town and the surrounding territory didn't have any kind of digital connection when we started the project. The idea at the start was to bring digital platforms [to the community], because they live in a remote area, and to connect them to new markets. One person in our group said we shouldn't bring any digital technologies, because that was imposing on them a reality that wasn't theirs. But we didn't agree on that. Our point was that we were giving them the chance to do it, not forcing them to do it, but bringing them the opportunity in the most respectful way, so they could decide how they were going to use the technology.

Southall: And it could be a very patronizing and racist thing to assume the best on someone's behalf, instead of letting them make that decision themselves.

Sanint: My approach to design is about creating value for people, rather than solving problems. Agreeing with [the community you're designing for] on which values we're going to grow together [is part of that process].

My approach to design is about creating value for people, rather than solving problems.

Wu: My mother and I are going to start a fashion label. It's a way for her to publish her story, through a medium that she taught me how to love, which is fashion. We're going to call it Serenity Department. It's a way to give her agency.

She lives in Australia, I live in Holland. She's always talking about wanting to tell her story because she's been quite oppressed for most of her life, and this way of telling her story is a way of making herself visible. I suggested she start drawing her story, if she didn't feel comfortable with writing. She started practicing drawing, and now she's gathered a bunch of amazing imagery. Entering into this process of publishing [her life story], working out what this project means, is a way of trying to give her a platform to care, and to have the profits going to her retirement fund as remittance.

Tejada: A lot of decolonizing is about visibility and recognition, and your mom feeling like she is a valuable person and has a story of importance. Toni Morrison said that education is the power of bringing someone else up with you, and using that power to elevate other people and make them visible as humans. I hear you talk about your mom and it's so exciting. I think we need to make for mom.

Southall: I'm super for the "making for mom" model. We're legitimate as audiences as well, and it's legitimate for us to design for [our own] communities. There's something special that's gonna come out of that, that won't be cookie cutter because it's coming out of really personal things.

I also think a movie like Black Panther is a good model, where you have music, fashion, all those visual references together-it has such power. When I saw that movie, I cried, because this is a model of what could be. It was so unapologetically Black in the presentation. I thought, what if there was a Native version, and you had all these different tribes represented? I don't have to be Black to see that it's an awesome movie and a template for possibilities. They didn't water it down for fear that their audiences might be white. The costume designer was referencing all these different traditions, and that was so powerful. I think we can work that way as designers, and other people can find value in it too.

Tejada: Ryan Coogler made the film a platform for a bunch of amazing designers. In the case of Ruth Carter, the costume designer, he gave her the space [to make the best body of work] she could ever create, which she'd been planning for thirty years. On the episode of Netflix's which documents her career, she explains that she'd been working up to that [project] for so long, and to have that platform and not have to dumb it down was exceptional.
Black Panther My last question takes note of an Audre Lorde quote, "the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house." In this respect, what tools can we use to decolonize design, particularly if the tools that we've been given are the ones of our oppressors? is a brilliant example of how we can work towards decolonizing design because it's about Black people taking control of their own narratives, about collectivity in building something together as costume designer, director, color grader. It also is an example of respectful design. That episode of Abstract references how Carter went to specific African tribes to ask for their permission to use their designs.
Southall: Looking back at the values of people's respective communities is valuable, and using that to inform your practice. The Ojibwe language is about things being alive around you, whereas the English language presents objects as not alive. There's different ways of looking at the world, and you can bring that to your design. We should examine this more deeply, speak about individualism versus collectivism like we've discussed, and also how cultures impact that. As designers, being aware of bigger issues, being aware of conversations around representation, race and power, are also what we should keep in mind as we practice.

Sanint: The main tool that a designer should have is empathy. There are cases where the designer studies people and says, "yeah I understand how they think," but that's not empathy. Really, being able to recognize the value of the other person, and understanding that the other point of view is also correct, is something we should work towards.

Tejada: What's exciting to me is the tools that I don't know how to use, because they give me a way of breaking down my preconceived notions of what I should do or make. Sometimes teaching students to use the tools wrong, to hack them, and use them to create something else, is valuable.

Wu: I recently learned about the term, "non-violent communication." It was coined in the sixties, by a white male called Marshall Rosenberg, but there's this new book called Decolonizing: Non-Violent Communication that's by an American Asian author called Meenadchi. It explores how one exercises violence when judging, and how judging can be the ultimate violence. How do you communicate with each other without that judgement? In graphic design, which is in the realm of communicating, how can we non violently communicate?

Tejada: I was thinking about the Beloved Community conversation guidelines, which Martin Luther King established (above). The first thing they say is to listen actively. In particular, how do you create spaces that are respectful, that are open to different opinions and people that are coming from different places, so we can engage in beautiful conversations?

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"Decolonizing Means Many Things to Many People"-Four Practitioners Discuss Decolonizing Design

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Last year, I wrote an article for Eye on Design that asked what decolonization means in the context of design. The piece explores ideas of decolonizing design labor, differentiating the term from diversity, and dismantling the Eurocentric historical design canon. The work designers make is inspired

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Week 1 Required Reading: Chapter 10 Collaborate

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Week 1 Required Reading: Chapter 10 Collaborate

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The only way we can grow and develop is through exposure and our relationships and connections are our largest sources of communication as designers. If we are open we really can be each others sources and sharing personal experiences amongst us is key to enriching our own understanding.
We need to prioritise social experiance as it critically enriches our practice and makes us stronger as communicators.
Design is a social process with social outcomes so working individually is massively restrictive.
Seeking outside of our area is often considered as better but really working close to home allows us to place importance on our own experiance and knowledge and form string foundations for the work we are producing.
We needn't search but look for something within us.
This relates to our chosen project. Working personally allows us access to each others knowledge and experiance. We can utilise this to relate to others and produce work that tackles an issue we all are currently facing and experianceing.

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Week 1 Required Reading: Great Estates Project

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Week 1 Required Reading: Great Estates Project

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We define co-design as "an approach that centres around the idea that people who are affected by a decision, event or product should have an opportunity to influence it."
- Inclusivity is key to understanding. Listening and including means experiance is spread and therefore again bridging occurs. Decisions made for a group without involving them are often invasive. An immersive approach is key.
Breaking the process into four key steps really allowed personal and individual space as well as involving the residents input at every stage so they can direct their own learning and relationship with the program being put forward. There was no requirement rather an opportunity at each stage which also maintained participant autonomy key to an empathetic approach but also an effective outcome.

With my own work I would really like to adopt the step by step model to ensure my audience are engaged so it does not become narrow and self concerned. It will also allow me to reflect and ensure that my goals are met and that.

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Week 1 Required Reading: An Ethnography Primer

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Week 1 Required Reading: An Ethnography Primer

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The purpose and role of designers is to invoke, inspire, provoke and provide utility for people and in order to do that empathy needs to be present for connections to be built.
In many instances we are removed or intruces on spaces meaning the empathy and connection is absent. Ethnography though with observation remedy's this. In observing people in natural environments we are able to see how individuals perceive their position in the world and behave. It crosses the bridge between empathy and understanding which is something I feel is key to our project.
People are complex and individual, in order to understand we cant purely perceive them but instead need to immerse ourselves in their world.
We perceive ourselves one way but actually act differently. Asking questions limits ourselves to these perceptions but emersion we learn about choices and can create environments and messages that create to an individuals reality.

I found this piece really enlightening. It has helped me realise that in completing a project on student adjustment and loneliness I really need to utilise my own experiance and identity of being a part of the community to make my observations. Rather then separating myself I need to immerse myself in this part if my identity and recognise the behaviours rather than simply enquire. From here I am setting myself the task of walking around CSM and watching the interactions, behaviours and relationships exhibited. I will capture through photography.

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A project based on the idea that cultural differences between each of are not hindrances but are instead points that allow us to have deeper connections and understandings of each other. In seeing other we evaluate our own. With his current project he intents to open up this dialogue. The project is indented to hold up a mirror to distorted expectations expressing a whole character rather than a traditional expectation.
Why is it relevant?

This project seeks to understand people for who they are in the round not just who they are on paper. With our work we are trying to express experiences and emotions not just how we present. In this way this work as we want to express true experiance rather just what is factually happening on paper.

What makes it effective?

I think this work is effective because of the wide scale engagement. It seeks and listens to a variety of people from very background bridging rather than bonding. It seeks to understand and share and express in a ew way where people can form a personal relationship with the work.

I feel also the simple and playful design style is effective as it is left to audience interpretation but also makes it fun and joyful which is a really beautiful and effective way of forming connections.

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At the heart of Tobias Gutmann's artistic practice lies the creation and investigation of encounters - between people, cultures, and environments, but also between what we perceive on the outside and what we feel on the inside. With his Face-o-mat performance, he portrays people by expressing their characteristics and personal traits through abstract drawings.

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This project investigates the effect that participatory design has on enhancing community and the overall effectiveness of the outcomes generated through this method. This project recognises that there is fragmentation and a loos of networks isolating people and also meaning people do not know what to do in curtain situations.
Why is it relevant?

Looking at student population when starting school there are parallels. Starting is an isolating experiance and the design of resources is unclear. There is a lack of a network disadvantaging people and leading them to struggle in the situations that they are in.

We found the resources deigned to be quite cold and clinical. It didn't feel as though new students where engaged and felt very separate. We feel that playful design engaging others and discussing experiance will help produce work that connects everyone in the way that this project did.

It's relevant to us as we are also looking at active participation and playful design but also informs us of new ways to engage with an audience.

What makes it effective?

The use of engagement. The work of this project allows the participants to form their own ideas and designs in a playful way. It removes the level of fear and makes it fun meaning the structures in place and work outputted is really suited to the audience but also the production of it has built networks.

Perhaps the thing that makes this the most effective is that it has built understanding to avoid ‘imagined’ notions of a community that can hide social heterogeneity and crossed bridges between understanding and experiance.

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This is a project in New York designed to provide resources and skills need to individuals from a variety of backgrounds to rise above adversity and find positive direction with their lives. A key value of this project is connection and has a strong and soul focus on the individuals in the group. They form foundations of understanding and support and build upon them to enable individuals to take their own steps to grow.
Why is it relevant?

This work is not directly related to the project that we are producing so the relevance is different . I feel this work is relevant with it's individual centred approach. I feel like the way they support without intruding is key to settling in somewhere. If you don't find your own feet you feel excluded so I feel as though this idea of utilising networks to find your own place is really relevant and key to the project that my group are producing.

What makes it effective?

I think for this work what makes it effective is the way it engages people in deciding what they are offered. The project is deigned by it's users. I also feel it is effective as it supports and therefore allows users to presever autonomy.

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All of us have dreams and goals. The focus of our community programs for people with intellectual / developmental disabilities is helping children and adults on the autism spectrum, with a traumatic brain injury, cerebral palsy, or other cognitive disabilities achieve their own meaningful goals.

Some aspire to get a job or live independently. Others want to make new friends and explore the world around them. We believe that a life of healthy interdependence is important for all, and so, we help people to build a strong circle of support they can count on in pursuit of their goals. Our programs combine recreation, creative arts, volunteer work, life skills, pre-vocational training, and job coaching in a mix that helps each person fulfill their own aspirations. Working with people one-on-one to determine what their goals are, we then provide the resources they need to achieve them.

Adult Day Habilitation

Hiking, creative arts, a trip to a museum or a day helping others - for the people in our Day Hab program, each day brings new opportunities to learn, socialize, and enhance their life skills. Day Hab participants come together in small groups to expand their horizons and participate in their community. Individual Service Plans, based on the strengths and desires of each participant, are woven into each day's activities.

Through education and exposure to new experiences, each person is engaged through various methodologies. Community integration is a key component. Whether learning to socialize with peers at the YMCA, volunteering at the local animal shelter, or participating in a Zumba class at the community center, the men and women of the program engage with the greater community and build skills in various areas of their lives. Art also plays an important role. A boy who doesn't use spoken language to communicate may draw in bright colors to indicate a feeling of happiness. Then, staff can use that cue to help identify why he is happy in that moment and promote opportunities for similar moments. No matter the skill level, men and women get to experience activities of their choice that help to enrich their days and make a meaningful difference in their lives.

Our Pre-Vocational program provides actual hands-on training for people with a desire to work. Through volunteering, professional skill building and other work-related activities, men and women learn the culture of the workplace including how to interact positively with co-workers, and expectations about dress and timeliness. They can then build confidence in their mastery of various skills through practical on-the-job experiences on our campus - in the cafe, delivering the mail - or by volunteering in other programs.

Supportive Employment

Once someone has completed pre-vocational training and is ready to work, we help them find a job that is personally fulfilling - one they will be happy to have for years to come. For all the people we support, we provide job coaching and on-the-job mentoring as well as assistance looking for the right job. Some people may be also trained in the specific skills needed by an employer.

"I work at TGI Friday as a hostess, and I want to keep working there for a long, long time because I really like my job," says Crystal Vargas, who is proud of being part of a team helping people have a good dining experience.

In our Supported Employment Program, she learned the skills needed to land her job. Like all participants in the program, she was assigned a job coach who worked with her onsite to learn the workplace culture and make sure she was comfortable in her new job. Her dedication, combined with the support of her coach, soon led to a promotion from rolling silverware to greeting guests.

Children's Recreation Programs

Who wants to stay home on the weekend? Not the children we support! They'd rather participate in sports, creative arts, dance, music and field trips.

On weekends, the children's recreation program is ready with opportunities to have fun. Children socialize with peers and gain a greater sense of independence through the opportunity to build skills and socialize with others of similar abilities, which is critical to children with special needs. Through recreational activities, children learn vital socialization, communication, and safety awareness skills, as well as improve their self-care skills. In addition, children receive guidance and support from a psychologist, nurses, nutritionists, speech therapists and communication specialists. Families and caregivers get a break, too, confident that their children are in safe, nurturing hands.

Community Habilitation

Our support is also delivered right to the door of those who need it - when they need it. On weekday afternoons or evenings, staff visit the homes of children and adults with intellectual / developmental disabilities to help them learn the specific skills they want to master, such as brushing their own teeth or traveling on the subway. Through one-on-one coaching, we segment activities such as creating a food shopping list or a budget for the week into achievable steps so they can be motivated by the joy of their success each step of the way.

Our support doesn't end with helping people with intellectual / developmental disabilities. We train parents, grandparents, and siblings to support socialization skills and activities of daily living. These in-home visits also give caregivers much needed respite, time they can spend with their other children or running errands.

Person-Centered Support

We are strongly committed to identifying each person's strengths, dreams, and aspirations. Those strengths and aspirations provide the roadmap for each person's journey to a better quality of life. In doing so, we exceed the standards for Personal Outcome Measures (POMs) set by the Council on Quality and Leadership (CQL), whose guidelines we follow.

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Community programs for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities

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All of us have dreams and goals. The focus of our community programs for people with intellectual / developmental disabilities is helping children and adults on the autism spectrum, with a traumatic brain injury, cerebral palsy, or other cognitive disabilities achieve their own meaningful goals. Some aspire to get a job or live independently.

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Ideo is a community of designers, researchers and teachers who work collaboratively with a user centred approach that looks at the experiance in the whole rather than isolated events. Looking at their takes on government project they characterised users through interviews research and reviews to produce a project that is truly created for and relevant to the users.
Why is it relevant?

This project is relevant for a number of reasons one of which being their characterisation concept. In order to understand how to produce a design we need to understand the audiences and the experiences. With our project we want to target the specific audience so this approach of characterisation can help us to understand the work that we are designing and the effect that it will have.

The visuals used in this project are also relevant. We felt the resources provided to us where plain and unrelatable and feel as though using icons like in this it is more personable.

What makes it effective?

It bridges understanding with experiance. Th users are able to relate to the work and see themselves represented. It allows users to find help specifically cantered to them and feel understood.

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This project, designed by students and coordinated by a student, is aimed at tackling student loneliness in lockdown. She utilises her own experiences and peers to design gatherings encouraging others to connect so they do not feel alone in the world or lost with the experiance. It has resulted in a range of organised events over zoom being set up to tackle loneliness as students living during a pandemic.
Why are they relevant?

This project has many parallels to our own and has the same goal, tackling student loneliness. I feel it is relevant as it displays how utilising experiance and peers is effective at working solutions. It also looks at how connections are often the remedy for negative feelings and can really settle us.

What makes them effective?

She utilises her own experiance find common ground with others. The activities are suggested and therefore chosen by participants so the project can be as effective for the participants as possible for challenging loneliness.

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A Cardiff University student has set up a project to tackle youth loneliness during the coronavirus pandemic.

Naomi Lea, 21, who is from Denbighshire, said the issue was often not associated with young people - but many were finding lockdown restrictions had taken a toll on their mental health.

She set up Project Hope and with the help and support of young people and Youth Cymru they organise online gatherings for people aged 13-25 three times a week.

"In this crisis so many young people are finding that loneliness is a real issue - they haven't been able to socialise with friends face to face or do the things they enjoy. I think many have really missed that contact with other people of the same age and they're struggling," said the final-year psychology student.

"In response to this, I wanted to set up a project to tackle young people's loneliness during this period and beyond.

"It started with a small idea and a tweet asking for young people and youth professionals to get involved and has blown up into something that is creating positive change by promoting connection, even in just the few months we have been running. I'm really proud of the community we've created."

The Zoom meet-ups take place on Monday evenings, Wednesday afternoons and Saturday evenings. Sessions so far have included quizzes, game nights, virtual tea breaks, open mic evenings and wellbeing sessions.

"There's something for everyone," said Naomi.

"Each session is run by at least two young people and supported by professionals. We've had people join in from around Wales and the UK - and even the US. The project is growing every week with young people joining us to connect with each other and reduce feelings of loneliness."

Joshua, 23, said: "The project has had a huge impact on me - before it came along I wasn't really going out anywhere during lockdown but now I'm taking my dog out for a walk most days."

Another participant, aged 14, said: "It was so cool - I've made lots of new friends"

Team member Kelly said: "It has helped to keep me motivated during this period of uncertainty while also giving me a space where I feel safe and comfortable to learn and develop new skills.

"I attend many of the zoom sessions we hold - and they're usually the highlight of my entire day. The team behind Project Hope are really great and being involved in this project is an experience I'll hold on to for a very, very long time."

The project is also running social media accounts on Twitter and Instagram where they have daily themes with content for young people to get involved in:

Challenge Mondays - fun challenges to get involved in throughout the day

Team Tuesdays - introduce members and share fun facts about the team

Wisdom Wednesdays - share fun facts throughout the day

Thankful Thursdays - thank those making a difference and encourage people to think about what they are thankful for

Arty Fridays - share artwork created by young people

Supportive Saturdays - share motivational quotes and talk all things wellbeing

Social Sundays - share a challenge on social media

The final part of the project is to put together a Zine of creative work, such as art, short stories and poetry, created by young people during the pandemic.

The project is following safeguarding advice from Youth Cymru, a charity that supports young people and the professionals who work with them across Wales.

Two youth professionals join each video call to take responsibility for safeguarding. Other measures include making the meet ups open only to those who have signed up.

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Project to tackle loneliness among young people during coronavirus pandemic

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A Cardiff University student has set up a project to tackle youth loneliness during the coronavirus pandemic. Naomi Lea, 21, who is from Denbighshire, said the issue was often not associated with young people - but many were finding lockdown restrictions had taken a toll on their mental health.

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- There is no clear opposite of loneliness, being with people does not remedy it. In many ways happiness is the opposite of loneliness and for me this is defiantly the case. Maybe the opposite could be a preoccupied and happy mind where you are not trapped thinking about your problems.
- What do we want other than loneliness? working this out is the way to cure it. Contentment, connection, happiness and friendship are the most Widley viewed opposites to loneliness but the vast majority had know idea what to say. How can we remedy it without not knowing what to replace it with.
- Example: Caring for mother with dementia, not a conscious decision but plunges you into isolation. Life becomes smaller and smaller and is unstable. Physically it's draining and full of doubt. Both physical and mental manifestations and takes away many levels of humanity.
- Loneliness reduces immune system and increases inflammation the same way adverse life experiences do. Lonely people are more prone to degenerative mental illness and even cancer increasing mortality rate. Loneliness makes people sick furthering this idea of isolation. Viral illnesses are more common.
- Loneliness is like a hunger and can act as a prompt but chronically and left without remedy it manifests dramatically.
- Youth Focus North East: Alternative prom from a range of teens who may have missed the experiance for a wide variety of reasons whether they are social, financial or mental. Groups that are often excluded from society. Provides opportunity for inclusion and experiance. Mental health really does contribute to loneliness and this cycle is difficult to break.
- At young age loneliness manifests in dangerous behaviours of drinking and smoking but also increases risk of mental illness that is long term. There is also a genetic factor of 40% of loneliness. This is through an eversion in the evolutionary process to being isolated and working on your own. There is safety in numbers.
- Depression and loneliness although separate are linked, lonelier individuals are twice as likely to show major depressive disorder. The genetic influence is common between both issues.
- Lonelier individuals reportedly had poorer sleep and struggles with completing every day tasks.
- Concern for loneliness showed in the 2nd world war interpreted as moral with psychological resilience. Observations conducted on states of mind found that because of grief and separation the majority experienced it despite knowing and understanding the reasoning and purpose.
- The concern of loneliness is acute right now but this stems from an increase in individualism that fails to deliver in ways that meet needs. There is s growth in single person households which is a shift from a time where people would be together every day and sharing life in many more ways.
- Concerns for loneliness are rising in plans for development. We are having to make an effort to design a neiboroughly environment to help people feel connected to those around the. Small incidental connections really increase a since of belonging and relationships.
- Independent cultures encourage separation and individualism but interdependent encourage seeing yourself as part of a community. These effect how we form relationships with others and relate to others. independent cultures pick connections but interdependent are communities that are stronger and as a result much more resilient. They have lowered levels of loneliness. Care in interdependent cultures is much stronger and more personal with the elderly and young people feeling much more secure than in other countries.

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The Anatomy of Loneliness - Episode 3 - BBC Sounds

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Catch up on your favourite BBC radio show from your favourite DJ right here, whenever you like. Listen without limits with BBC Sounds.

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In relation to my own work this piece really sparked an interest in the marginalisation of certain groups of young people. In a project looking at loneliness when starting in a new environment I really want to consider how people of socially do not feel accepted have differencing experiences of loneliness when starting at university and where there experiences where more intense than other.
In the work we are creating to tackle this issue of loneliness I really want to focus on this idea that small incidental differences that encourage positive relations increase understanding and comfortability and look at how these can be created.
Also in terms of building community when starting university this idea of interdependence is key. I want people to feel understood and seen not on there own so want the work we create to really invoke positive understandings of experiences to form foundations for looking after each other. Understanding is key to community and shared experiance lead to this being formed.

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For me this model is vital in creating work that truly understands and works with a wicked problem. A wicked problem is something with no clear end or resolution, any solution suggested will be the end of the problem and really it is not something to solve but instead something to work with. This model gives room and space that is needed to truly understand the nature and nuances of something so complex. Through process of observation, production and reflection we begin to experiance the problem and how it is function and how it is constructed and to truly understand something experiance is key. This model bridges the gaps between production without though and experiencing. This bridge is more than a band and allows consideration and empathy.
Through this process of reflection we can identify boundaries and uncertainties and adjust approaches to be measured and effective. It also allows us to adapt to the changes within wicked problems that due to their complex nature are continually evolving.