2ND EDITION | 2026
Equitable Community Co-Design Playbook
An approach to equitable community influence and action.
Free PDF, no sign-up needed
Most organizations already have data: surveys, usage numbers, outcomes. What that data rarely tells you is why. Why people don't use the program “built for them.” Why outreach keeps reaching the same people. Why a well-funded effort stalls. Co-design brings the people closest to the challenge, and most directly impacted by it, in as paid design partners, where they surface and navigate what your current methods cannot.
Insight your data can’t give you
The real problem, not the assumed one
Programs often stall because they're solving the wrong problem entirely. Co-designers help name and reframe the real one, so your time and money go where they'll make a difference.
People and experiences your outreach doesn’t reach
Co-designers engage with people in their own networks, the ones surveys and listening sessions miss, and help make sense of what they hear through a lens of shared lived experiences.
Criteria that guides this decision and the next ones
The work ends with clear design criteria (community-grounded pattern language), built with community, that your team can use for the next program, policy, or funding decision to affect system decisions, not just project ones.
Where to start
Built to be used, not read front to back. Find your experience below.
“I’m exploring co-design for the first time.”
Chapter 2: What is Equitable Co-Design?
“I’m recruiting community members or building a team.”
Chapter 7: Recruitment as Power-Building
“I’m ready to move from ideas to action.”
Chapter 9: Insights to Implementation
“I need help planning or launching a co-design effort.”
Chapter 5: Project Scoping and Preparation?
“I’m looking to facilitate a co-design process.”
Chapter 8: Facilitation and Holding Space
“I want to shift our organization’s approach.”
Chapter 4: System and Organizational Readiness
WHAT’S INSIDE
11 chapters | Templates and tools you can use right now | 6 case studies