UDesign Justice Initiative: What We Heard Report
Co-Design Workshop #1
UDesign Justice Initiative
How We Began : Workshop 1
The UDesign Justice Initiative is a transdisciplinary platform committed to reimagining how the built environment is shaped, centering equity, community knowledge, and justice in design and planning. We believe those most impacted by spatial injustice must lead the creation of solutions.
Workshop #1 launched the UDesign Justice Initiative by bringing together community members, students, and professionals to co-create the foundation for a community-led approach to design justice. The session focused on naming the initiative, identifying core values and principles, and establishing long-term priorities.
This session laid the foundation for a new kind of design space that listens deeply, redistributes power, and builds from community-led visioning.
Workshop Details
Envisioning the Future
THE MISSION
RESEARCH
EDUCATION
ACTION ORIENTED
“We exist to be Inclusive, Supportive, and take Action through Research and Education.”
MISSION
The UDesign Justice Initiative is a platform that directly addresses community issues through design. It exists for all the diverse and underrepresented communities. It challenges dominant design methodologies, narratives, processes, and systems in academia and practice and tests new ideas. It does these actions by centring community-led processes, decolonizing practices, understanding the narratives, and amplifying the voices of marginalized populations. The initiative seeks to reframe how we understand oppressions and exclusions, and co-create more equitable, just, and inclusive spaces and policies.
More information available in our What We Heard Report 2025
WHAT WE HEARD REPORT
FOCUS AREAS
Our focus areas include Education, Research, and Advocacy, grounded in Community Engagement, Lived Experiences, and the Needs of Communities and Marginalized Groups, by building Awareness, Sharing Knowledge and Information, and Funding, to advance Practice, Policy, and Accessibility.
What We Heard Report | JUNE 2025
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“We recognize that design is a vulnerable act and mistakes are part of the
journey, but we hold ourselves and each other accountable, and we create a
safe and welcoming space for learning, growing, and co-creating more
responsibly. As a collective hub, we are committed to equitable design, clear
and open dialogue, and designing with communities, ensuring everyone is
heard and included. We bridge real-world experience and learning to create
positive change without placing burdens on those we serve.”
OUR JOURNEY TOGETHER begins here
Workshop #2
The second workshop will refine the framework, identify partnerships and funding strategies, and map a path forward. By grounding its work in co-design and relational accountability, UDesign Justice Initiative is poised to become a transdisciplinary platform that not only identifies injustices but mobilizes collective expertise and imagination to build a more equitable built environment.
UPCOMING WORKSHOP DETAILS
What We Heard Report | JUNE 2025
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Participants articulated a shared desire to create a “third space” - a knowledge hub, advocacy platform, and change engine - that brings together marginalized communities with practitioners and allies to confront systemic barriers and spatial inequities.