The SDI Process
The Strategic Design Initiative (SDI) process brings impacted community
members together with community-based
organizations and businesses to develop comprehensive road maps that identify
the most effective ways of addressing systemic problems.
Through deliberate team-building, training, and facilitation, the model
centers lived experience to elevate key voices
within the community. The taskforce-oriented
workgroups develop impactful and informed
solutions for their community’s most pressing
issues.
Participants are consistently called to address
power dynamics, engage across differences, and
commit to hearing and respecting all voices.
Designing the Team
The first step in the SDI process is to identify a
team which represents the impacted
communities and includes broad perspectives
and experiences.
To ensure the most important
perspectives are included in the process, a
competitive application and selection process is
used to identify three-quarters of the workgroup.
The remaining members are
deliberately chosen to fill in gaps in experience or
knowledge identified from the competitive
selection process.
This is the foundation of the
SDI approach, and is an essential way to ensure
diverse, strong, community-based workgroups.
Recruiting the Team
Beginning in March 2019, requests for proposal were distributed broadly to community members, community-based
organizations and businesses, and others deeply
entrenched in meaningful service to the Wards 7
and 8 communities.
Co-leads identified strengths across
applicants’ lived experience, professional background, skills, experience, and
knowledge. Co-chairs for each issue area were selected first so they could participate in the selection
process for the teams they would lead.
Three additional members were selected to participate in each
group and we additionally
recruited cancer survivors, Ward 7 residents, and individuals knowledgeable about the criminal justice system.