NYC Civic Engagement Commission and Service Design Studio host Civic Design Forum on Community-Led Decision-Making and Human-Centered Government Design

For Immediate Release: June 12, 2023

Contact: publicaffairs@civicengagement.nyc.gov

New York – The New York City Civic Engagement Commission (CEC) and the Service Design Studio at the Mayor's Office of Economic Opportunity convened public servants from across city government on Thursday, June 4 for the Civic Design Forum: The People's Money Data Design Sprint, a day-long workshop focused on community-centered design, participatory democracy, and innovative approaches to public service delivery.

Held at the CUNY Graduate Center, the forum brought together 51 city employees representing 24 agencies to learn from New York City's citywide participatory budgeting process, The People's Money, and apply service design methods to real community-generated data.

Participants explored how governments can incorporate resident voices into policy, programs, and services through community engagement and collaborative decision-making processes. Drawing on thousands of ideas submitted by New Yorkers through The People's Money, attendees worked in teams to identify recurring themes, analyze community priorities, and develop concepts responsive to residents' expressed needs.

"As the City continues to strengthen its participatory infrastructure, it is vital that we come together to share knowledge and practices that keep public services responsive to community voices," said Director of the Service Design Studio Lyndsey Richardson.

Throughout the day, participants took part in a hands-on design sprint centered on four issue areas drawn from People's Money submissions: arts and culture, outdoor spaces, support for older New Yorkers, and support for immigrant communities. Using qualitative research and synthesis techniques, attendees identified patterns in community feedback, framed key challenges, generated potential solutions, and developed strategies for implementation and stakeholder engagement.

The event highlighted the intersection of participatory democracy and service design, demonstrating how community-generated data can inform more responsive and effective public services.

"The Service Design Studio has built a robust community of practice across NYC government agencies to put New Yorkers at the center of how we design and implement public services. We were thrilled to partner for this year's Civic Design Forum to achieve two simple goals: encourage government agencies to engage in more participatory democracy, and to have public servants learn from the 12,199 challenges and solutions shared by New Yorkers over the last four years through The People's Money," said Oscar J. Romero Jr., Chief Information Officer of the CEC. "As public servants we have the dual mandate to both engage with New Yorkers directly and to break government siloes by listening to what people say when they engage with other government agencies."

Participants also received training in data and thematic analysis, rapid brainstorming, storytelling, validation methods, and strategies for getting internal buy-in for community-informed initiatives. Select concepts generated during the forum may receive additional project scoping support from the Service Design Studio.

"This kind of interdisciplinary space matters because the work has to be done holistically: breaking down walls to sense-make, ideate, and prioritize together across expertise, resources, and the communities we're accountable to. We are change makers," said CEC Design Strategist Sadie Prego.

The Civic Design Forum is a recurring learning series that brings together members of New York City's human services and public sector communities to exchange knowledge, skills, and approaches for creating effective, accessible, and dignified public services.

This forum's focus on The People's Money underscored the growing role of participatory governance in New York City. Administered by the Civic Engagement Commission, The People's Money is the city's annual participatory budgeting process, allowing New Yorkers to help decide how public funds are invested in their neighborhoods.

"New Yorkers know what their communities need better than anyone else. Their proposals for solutions to neighborhood challenges are worth sharing with city agencies and key decision makers, so that government can work to be responsive," said CEC Chair and Executive Director Dr. Sarah Sayeed. "The Civic Engagement Commission is looking forward to working with our agency partners to continue to build trust with New York City residents."

The People's Money is currently in its Voting phase, which means that all New Yorkers 11 and older, regardless of immigration status, can vote on how to spend $4 million of the city budget on community projects in their borough. Voting for The People's Money runs through June 21. Residents can vote online at on.nyc.gov/pb or in-person at locations across the five boroughs at participate.nyc.gov.