Co-Design is an inclusive approach to identifying and defining community needs and developing community-identified solutions, a shift from traditional community engagement because both issues and solutions must belong to people, not institutions or agencies, and a primary research methodology. Co-Design is a transformational process that is relational versus transactional and incorporates deliberate community participation and data from conception through implementation. It replaces an existing process with one that increases input, context, and accountability.

 

Typically, organizations gather feedback from specific groups or populations using transactional engagement such as surveys or one-off focus groups. Co-Design is a transformational methodology that integrated unique community perspectives and wisdom from the very beginning of project scoping all the way through implementation. There is mutual accountability, a bi-lateral increase in understanding, and a sense of shared ownership.