B3: Congreso’s Human-Centered Design Toolkit for Innovation in Social Services
Area of Focus: Government Affairs and Advocacy, Leadership and Organizational Development
Content Level: Doer
In this practical, hands-on workshop, presenters from Congreso de Latinos Unidos, a multiservice organization in Philadelphia, will share their homegrown Human-Centered Design Toolkit and information about innovative design tools that participants can take back to their organizations for thoughtful service design and delivery.
Congreso has been using human-centered design (HCD) as an innovative framework for its service design process, reimagining human services for its largely Latino population. Specializing in “last mile innovation,” Congreso uses its design toolkit to empower staff at the end-user client level to redesign their programs to generate data-rich insights, leading to improved experience and outcomes for participants. Staff and leaders are empowered to thoughtfully advocate for their teams and communities.
In building the design toolkit, Congreso tested more than 75 HCD tools and methods used throughout the private sector to determine which techniques translate and have the greatest impact in the social services field. In doing so, Congreso has learned a great deal about how to bring practical design and social innovation techniques into program teams, providing professional development opportunities for staff via “design labs” and building the organization’s culture and acumen around using design for increased impact and advocacy.
In this session, participants will learn about Congreso’s human-centered design journey, see the design toolkit firsthand and participate in mini design labs to gain hands-on experience of putting design practices into action.
Congreso will walk participants through each tool in the design toolkit, provide tips for use, and give everyone a chance to experience the tools in action. Presenters will guide participants in applying the tools to real-life design challenges in their programs so that they gain experience in using HCD to rethink challenges and explore new ideas.
Learning Objectives
- The tenets of human-centered design
- Experience design tools in action
- Gain a concrete foundation in a variety of design practices that have been tested and validated for use in social services
Presenters
Brendan Conlin
Chief Program Officer
Congreso de Latinos Unidos
Jamie Hughes
Vice President of Programmatic Development
Congreso de Latinos Unidos