On Thursday 21 November, SIMNA Sydney gathered at Deloitte’s offices on George Street for an end of year event to talk all things co-design and celebration.
The evening began with an acknowledgement of country by our host for the evening, Tharani Jegatheeswaran, Partner, Social Impact Consulting, Deloitte.
Thereafter, Anna Ashenden, MC and Chair of the Sydney Committee facilitated. Some 40 participants attended from a variety of industries, including government, universities, corporates, start-ups and consultancies.
Two special guests were invited: Skye Trudgett from Clear Horizon and Jessica Graham-Frankin from Social Ventures Australia (SVA).
Skye Trudgett went first. She joined us on Skype, from her home in Melbourne. Skye’s area of expertise is co-design with indigenous groups and communities. Skye started by introducing the differences between Indigenous Data Sovereignty (IDS), Indigenous Data Governance and Indigenous Data.
- The primary reference point for work in this area is the OCAP principles.
- Originating in Canada, OCAP stands for ownership, control, access and possession.
- The OCAP principles assert that First Nations have control over data collection processes in their communities and that they own and control how this information can be used.
Skye questioned whether this equates to the decolonisation of data. Talking from her own experience, she explained that no, we’re not there yet, but that a ‘side by side’ approach can go a long way to help.
The process that Skye works to generally includes firstly, generic workshops to build trust, secondly the co-design of the matter at hand and finally, reporting back using culturally appropriate methods, such as song and dance.
There were a number of questions from the floor. Attendees asked about best practice methods for including indigenous/cultural IP in contracts and how to engage funders to fund this vital preparatory work, before the funding application is submitted. Challenges indeed.
In closing Skye suggested that those interested in finding out more check out the Global Indigenous Data Alliance. Anna thanked her for her time and she was gone, off to enjoy dinner with the fam!
Next up was the equally delightful Jessica Graham-Frankin, who works in SVA’s Employment Team. Jessica told us about her work on the ‘Review – Designing Better Outcomes’ for young people project.
Co-design principles lie at the heart of Review. Under development for the last 18 months, this free online toolkit is in its final stages. It is due to be launched in April 2020.
Review supports organisations in designing and delivering effective user-led employment programs for young people. It has a design process that involves collecting feedback directly from young people and analysing the data for the continuous improvement of existing programs.
Jessica shared that a number of important questions arose in the project’s early stages, including:
- What do employers really mean when they say the purpose of a given program is to improve participants’ employability skills?
- Does this term hold any meaning for young people? (No!!!!!)
- What would each young person consider to be a ‘meaningful outcome’ for them?
The project team have worked consistently with 8 – 10 organisations and 50 young people (all 16+).
One of the project’s key findings has been under-employment – despite being in employment, is a young person still looking for work? Another learning has been not to make assumptions about participants. Enter dialogue with an open mind, always! The process is theirs to shape.
As with Skye’s presentation, there were many questions. What happened to the young people that dropped out? How did you involve them? How does evidencing change differ to measuring it? The list was long!
After the presentations, the evening continued with an end of year tipple and a yarn with the others in the room. This night was a great opportunity to not only hear from two very good speakers but to also catch-up with other SIMNA members and make new friends.
Many thanks to Les Hems, and his team at Deloitte for hosting us.
See you next year!