We are a third place supporting changemakers from across the world to resist power and design liberatory ways of living, working, and relating to others.
We see design changemaking as one of many paths that roots us in a practice of collective liberation.
It aids us in designing alternatives beyond oppression in our jobs, businesses, and communities, creating change bothin within ourselves and larger systems around us.
In practice, it means breaking down and navigating around oppressive barriers, reducing and repairing harms, and uplifting living beings who have been historically and systematically marginalized by dominant groups.
We offer a variety of spaces and resources for people from all backgrounds to grow, thrive, and connect as design changemakers.
These will continue to evolve over time as we forge this third place together.
Design Changemakers was founded by Sandra Camacho (She/Her), a Franco-Colombian-American independent design strategist, learning designer, social justice educator and community builder.
After 8 years at Google, she took on the alias Sandra By Design in 2018 to support teams and changemakers to design for inclusion, equity, and social justice. She's also the founder of Leaving Tech and the Inclusive Design Jam.
Design Changemakers is an offshoot of the Inclusive Design Jam, a community of practice on inclusive and equitable design on Slack.
Formerly known as the Inclusive Design Jam Academy, it became a standalone learning platform in late 2023. The platform was unexpectedly put on hold in early 2024 due to our founder's medical leave.
In late 2024, Design Changemakers returned and was reimagined as a virtual gathering place following the founder's co-design experiment. It's gone through multiple renewals since its launch and dedicates itself today to self-paced and group programs and unconventional collective gatherings.
Actions speak louder than words. That's why we have intentionally designed equity, inclusion and accessibility into everything we do.
As this gathering place is self-funded and operated by a team of one, we commit to ongoing improvements as the space grows over time.
We break down barriers to access through multiple price points and equitable discounts to our gatherings and offerings. We regularly offer free insights, resources and learning in our Design Changemakers Digest and Library.
We provide ALT text, visual descriptions, closed captions, transcripts and audio-only versions of video content. We limit our use of jargon and complex language and are mindful of color contrast. We accomodate ad hoc accessibility requests to the best of our ability.
We use community agreements (with repercussions when not respected), content moderation and thoughtful facilitation practices to ensure you feel seen, heard, safe and respected in your learning experiences.
We draw visuals, examples, stories and data from a variety of contexts and geographies. While our work is currently in English, we hope to make translations available in the future. We aim to expand the voices, perspectives and lived experiences reflected in all of our spaces as our resourcing capabilities grow.
