https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85661148472?pwd=yeORLg4UFsuUedo1O9GDsG7kUZ5fCK.1
Description
Persistent gaps in health, education, and civic participation are not failures of community behavior; they are the predictable consequence of systems built without the people most affected. Co-design is how we change that: not as a project methodology with equity implications, but as the structural process by which a public builds the relationships, connections, and access to power that make civil rights and democratic participation real.
Drawing on the Co-Design as Structural Accountability framework (Roberts & Springer, 2026), this session explores where civil rights actually live in systems work, how co-design moves lived experience from input to governance, and what it takes for institutions to build relationships and distribute design authority with the communities they serve. Participants will leave with sharper language for distinguishing community engagement from community governance and a clearer sense of how co-design can build civic infrastructure in their own contexts.
OUR PRESENTER
Jess Roberts
Founder, ByDesign, LLC
Jess Roberts is the founder and lead co-design facilitator at ByDesign LLC, where he partners with health systems, public agencies, educational institutions, and governing bodies to redesign how decisions are made, and by whom. Trained as an architect, he approaches persistent gaps in health, education, and civic participation as design failures: the predictable result of systems built without the people most affected by them. Mr. Roberts is also an affiliate researcher at the Minnesota Design Center, and adjunct faculty at the School of Public Health, University of Minnesota.
The Equity Series is free to view.
About the Equity Alliance Equity Series
The Equity Alliance Equity Series is a monthly seminar sponsored by Destination Medical Center and the City of Rochester. The purpose is to introduce diversity, equity, and inclusion best practices, build sustainable DEI community strategies, and build advocacy and allyship within the Rochester community. The series is held virtually on the second Wednesday of every month at noon.