We are all living in challenging times that our past experiences and training may not have sufficiently prepared us for. As adrienne maree brown said, “Things are not getting worse, they are getting uncovered. We must hold each other tight and continue to pull back the veil.”

What inequities are more visible now? What inequities are emerging? How can we start designing the equitable future we want to live in now?

Liberatory Design is an approach grounded in our Leading for Equity Framework that knits together human-centered design thinking with an equity lens and a complexity stance. Many leaders approach their system’s challenges and change initiatives as complicated problems to solve, but equity challenges are more than complicated – they are complex with unknown problems and unknown solutions. For complex challenges like developing a distance learning plan, addressing disproportionality in discipline, implementing a district-wide equity initiative, or addressing inequitable & racist hiring practices at your organization, emergent solutions must be found through dynamic interactions of diverse people and networks working together. 

Liberatory Design is the result of a multi-year collaboration between Tania Anaissie, David Clifford, Susie Wise, and the National Equity Project. Our Liberatory Design for Equity course integrates the Liberatory Design approach into NEP’s Leading for Equity framework and pushes participants to expand their equity consciousness and move toward dynamic approaches to problem solving and decision-making. Leaders in complex systems must be skilled at balancing approaches that are technically sound and attentive to relationships; they need to know how and when to see, engage, and act. Liberatory design can support your efforts to lead change and create more equitable teams, organizations, and systems in ways that respond to this moment and lay groundwork for longer term transformation. 

Participants will:

• Develop an understanding of the Liberatory Design Approach, including the non-linear “process” for weaving this approach into their work and the mindsets needed to take careful and effective action 

• Develop and use equity, complexity and design lenses to clearly define their equity challenges and take quick, productive, liberatory steps within their spheres of influence

• Generate ideas and actions to take between sessions, and after the course, to apply the Liberatory Design approach in their work

• Regularly share their applications and insights with other participants in service of creating a learning community and deepening our collective understanding of the Liberatory Design approach

“NEP has a deep understanding about how to do equity work right, which means getting the right people at the table and letting them drive the discussion. I came out of this training with a much clearer picture of how to engage others in important dialogue and have conversations and meetings that will actually lead to change, rather than just talking around the important issues. Thank you NEP for this awesome opportunity!”

– Joy Lile, WA State Department of Children, Youth, and Families

“The team at NEP hosted leaders from across the country, in contexts that were at times quite disparate and helped us use a design lens to think about how we consistently improve our teams, schools, organizations, etc. They built a truly collaborative learning space, where we were able to connect early and often and build on one another's ideas. Thank you to all of the folks that put this together – I hope to learn more from this community as I grow as an Equity Leader.”

- Kareem Sayegh, The Network for College Success

“The human-centered, designed-centered approach to education is what's missing in the American education system. NEP helps us think about and design disruptive actions that leads to better adult and student experiences that change the outcomes for everyone, especially those beautiful young people who have been historically under-served.”

– Maurice Swinney, Chicago Public Schools