Design as a tool to reimagine an equitable society
ROLE
Director, Strategy & Project Lead
SKILLS
Exploring design and innovation as tools to imagine alternative, equitable & reparative futures
Through 8 years of experimenting, building, learning and evolving, Rooted has become a centre dedicated to reparative approaches in design and innovation that transform systems by centering Black voices, culture and lived experience. We partner with communities to co-create alternative solutions that address structural inequality in areas like health, finance and the environment. In 2020, I was invited to support in the growth and leadership of the organisation - taking on various roles in various capacities over 6 years.
A curious meeting of the minds at the intersection of design & social change
At a time when I was seeking to expand my design practice within Pitchsmiths, asking questions around what really helps innovators to understand the complex nuances of human beings and the social contexts we exist in, I saw a talk at Afrotech Fest, that went on to change the course of my career. Julian Thompson talked about the role of design in racial inequality and introduced an equity design practice that considered culture, history, trauma as part of a design practice that not only produces resonant solutions but equitable ones. Curious and inspired and after several coffees and meetings, Julian invited me to co-lead Rooted with him, an offer hard to turn down.
2020: Our team call to announce we were award our first funding
The learning journey of growing a unique type of organisation
It's pretty hard to summarise the journey of growing, supporting, leading an organisation from which no model or example existed. Rooted is made up of a team of designers, innovators, delivery managers, strategists committed to reimagining a society that works well for all, particularly Black communities.
My role and responsibilities included:
Strategy & leadership (strategy development, HR processes, team mgmt & culture, public speaking, brand strategy and development, recruitment, retreat planning & production)
Business management (funding proposal writing, client relationship management, proposition development)
Social design & research (equity design education, facilitation, equity-led research, qualitative research, event production)
Some of the projects I've led and delivered include:
The Dark is Bright (Funder: National Lottery Community Fund) "The Dark is Bright" was a collaborative project between Canopy, Rooted, and The Loss Project, funded by the National Lottery Emerging Futures Fund. Launched during the pandemic, the initiative provides a supportive, creative environment for individuals to explore grief and loss, aiming to foster community, healing, and imagination for social change. The project ran as a 12-week process , where participants explored their personal and shared stories of loss, using storytelling, image, word, and sound to develop scripts and create short films. During this project, co-designed and facilitated the programme for Unequal, a focus on the disproporation losses faced by Black communities, as well as designed and built the project website.
Black Joy is Ours (Funder: National Lottery Community Fund) In response to COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on Black communities and the emotional labour placed on them during renewed global conversations on racial justice, Black Joy was conceived as a restorative, community-led intervention centring joy as a form of care, resistance, and equity. In my role as Director and Project Lead at Rooted by Design, I led a £96,000, six-month National Lottery Community Fund project combining research, co-design, live and digital events, a touring programme across three UK cities, an exhibition, and the award-winning short film Dear Black Child.
Social Determinants of Health (Client: Impact on Urban Health Multiple Long Term Health Conditions Programmes) this project was commissioned to help improve the health outcomes of working age Black people in Southwark and Lambeth, who are more likely to face multiple long-term health conditions. This project sought to take a preventative approach of focusing on addressing the inequalities in their social determinants of health (particularly financial health and housing situation) and their mental wellbeing. Through discovery, this project proposed co-designing & investing in a vehicle for collaboration, for Black community leaders need to harness their voices, expertise and ideas to catalyse systemic change to improve the social conditions which impact the health of Black communities.
Health Effects of Air Pollution (HEAP) Programme Strategy (Client: Impact on Urban Health) After two years of a discovery and exploration phase, the HEAP team wanted to engage a process of reflection, challenge and collaboration with partners to design the strategy for the next phase of the programme. In a commitment to developing a strategy which would advance health equity, it was imperative the HEAP team created process of ‘designing strategy’ which was itself embodied equity, which is what we were commissioned to help them do, in order to define a future for the programme to truly benefit the communities it was created to serve.
Equity-centred design training (Clients: dxw and Shift) We were commissioned by service design agencies that work designing products and services to address social issues. In recognition of the structural barriers and disproportionate inequalities Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic communities typically face, they sought to consider the roles, mindsets, and toolkits needed for embedding more equitable experiences, engagement and outcomes into their design process. I co-designed and delivered 3-part training sessions for their design teams.
Talk on Inclusive Design (Client: The Design Council) As part of an event series The Design Council ran to open dialogue with Black creatives, we were invited to be part of a conversation to explore the role of inclusive design and why we need to design products, places and policies which promote equity for all. In this talk, I challenged the idea of inclusion and the power dynamics that sit within it, offering a new perspective on inclusive design, exploring how one can I include themselves in dismantling the barriers that exist so people can be free to create and design their own futures.
2022: Client Strategy Workshop - Impact on Urban Health
What we've achieved
From raising our first grant funding and hiring our first full-time employees in 2020 to growing to a team of 13 people by 2024, we have designed and led projects with charity, civil society, public sector and philanthropic organisations as clients and partners through which:
We’ve established an equity design practice and embedded it across local authority teams, NHS Trusts, digital teams and other system actors.
We’ve prototyped radical services, solutions and infrastructure that demonstrate the possibilities that future innovations can offer society.
We’ve co-designed and tested governance models for shifting decision-making power into the hands of communities.
We've partnered with communities to create new participation models that to bridge gaps between people and policy change.
After 8 years as an organisation developing our practice through researching and co-designing solutions with communities, learning and evolving, we rebranded and relaunched in 2025 as Rooted: the Centre of Reparative Innovation.
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