Designing for Dignity

Towards a Community of Practice and Care

Imagine a society where people feel disconnected, where divisions run deep, and where traditional solutions no longer meet the needs of our time. That’s the world we’re living in—and it’s exactly the kind of challenge Designing with Dignity is meant to confront.

More than just a short-term project with Phase 1 running from Summer 2025 to February 2026, this initiative is an open invitation—a living discussion paper—for conversation, critique, and collaboration. It builds on over ten years of community-led research and pilot projects. At its core is a bold but deeply human idea: everyone deserves to thrive.

Guided by the vision of building a true Community of Care and Practice, this plan is rooted in creativity, compassion, and conscience. It challenges the way we think about recreation—not just as a leisure activity, but as a meaningful tool for personal growth, community healing, and societal transformation. It echoes the values in the Framework for Recreation in Canada, which recognizes recreation as essential to quality of life.

This isn’t about patching old systems. It’s about reimagining them from the ground up. It’s about listening to those who’ve been ignored, seeing those who’ve been overlooked, and creating space for people who’ve too often been left out. It’s a call to design with justice, with imagination, and above all, in relationship.

Participatory Youth Action Research and the Arts

At the heart of this effort is youth—not as participants, but as leaders, researchers, and storytellers. Through Arts-Based Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR), young people will explore the barriers they face and the dreams they hold, using creative tools like storytelling, visual art, and performance. Their insights will guide the design of more inclusive, responsive, and just programs.

The plan also works directly with nonprofits, offering a pathway toward dignity-centered organizational change. This means rethinking governance, staffing, outreach, evaluation—everything—through the lens of equity, diversity, inclusion, access, and belonging.

With the support of partners like Global Dignity Canada and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD), and powered by a growing Youth Ambassador Program, this initiative is about more than fixing broken systems. It’s about building new ones that are rooted in dignity, creativity, and care.

In doing so, it offers something rare and necessary: real-world, practice-based proof that recreation is not a luxury—it’s a vital part of community well-being and a foundation for a more connected, resilient, and inclusive future.