Healing Communities with Design Thinking

When I think of spreading awareness of trauma informed care, I sometimes feel powerless, helpless, and overwhelmed at the magnitude of the task. Then, I remember that "design thinking" is a multi-disciplinary approach to human centered problems, centered in empathy. It uses empathy as the lens into people needs, so that solutions to problems are authentic and effective. Here's post on Design Thinking in K12 education. And here's one about Andres Marquez-Lara, a man who uses "design thinking" to heal communities.

In my work with young people, we used "design thinking" to create an innovative educational model that mitigates educational trauma. It reminds me that we all have everything we need to solve problems -- inside us, and all around. If you work with impacted communities, traumatized individuals, and oppressed people, please remember that "design thinking" is one way to train people to fish for themselves, rather than giving them fish for dinner when they are poor and hungry.