Centering community voices

Surfacing the voices of those who are not normally included in city visioning exercises, the workshops are led by local partner organisations, and connected to longer-term planning or funded development efforts to ensure that the ideas can be taken further.

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In August, a workshop co-hosted by the Kounkuey Design Initiative (KDI) and Embu County Government in Embu, Kenya, unleashed the optimism and creativity of local youth who shared their aspirations via newspaper headlines and news reports from the future.

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The infrahub.africa collection was presented to them as a possible source of ideas to improve their neighbourhoods, and there was particular interest in its diverse waste management approaches.

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To help them turn their ideas to reality, a follow-up workshop in October allowed them to pitch their ideas to local government officials, and the opportunities page of infrahub.africa was introduced to help them find funding and other support.

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Youth civic engagement

A placemaking event in Dallas also saw a local football team removing truckloads of plastic waste, the planting of trees, the painting of a colourful mural by a local artist and the creation of a temporary football pitch, helping locals to realise their agency in creating the futures they desire.

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For more information on this work, contact jack@kounkuey.org