Design Studio for Community Solutions

About the Design Studio

OSM Baseline Report
DSCS State of the Studio Report
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The Design Studio for Community Solutions (DSCS) works in and with communities to foster partnerships, implement community driven programs, and promote authentic university-community collaboration. The DSCS team holds the ASU design aspirations of Social Embeddedness and Principled Innovation as foundational to planning, ideating and implementing projects with local stakeholders.

The Design Studio for Community Solutions (DSCS) is an initiative of Arizona State University’s Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions that partners with local stakeholders to devise practical solutions to complex issues. Drawing upon ASU and community resources – and bringing research, student engagement and leadership to bear – DSCS (pronounced “discus”) serves as a vehicle to stimulate and activate co-generated solutions in our communities.

Our Initiatives:

The Maryvale One Square Mile Initiative (OSM) facilitates collaborative efforts between the university and the Maryvale community to address community goals and promote comprehensive change. This program works toward the following:

Increased youth participation in extracurricular activities in sports, arts, culture
Increasing post secondary school enrollment and employment pathways
Increased collaboration and connection between youth service providers in Maryale
Supporting ASU students, faculty and staff in learning about the community and sharing best practices for authentic community engagement

Opportunities for Youth (OFY)

supports backbone functions and outreach initiatives to re-engage youth ages 16-24 in education and workforce pathways. OFY is creating a comprehensive system of connections that empower and reengage Maricopa County’s opportunity youth for success in education, career and life by:

maintaining a system of 18 Reengagement Centers providing quality reengagement services to OY across the county
working with education partners to reduce barriers to reenrollment, high school diplomas, postsecondary degrees, and workplace learning
supporting employers to effectively recruit, hire, and retain OY in well-paying jobs

Check out OFY

The Concept

The Design Studio for Community Solutions (DSCS) is an initiative of Arizona State University’s Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions that partners with local stakeholders to devise practical solutions to complex issues. DSCS serves as a vehicle to stimulate and activate co-generated solutions in our communities.

DSCS believes communities thrive when solutions to their challenges are generated from the ground up; that by working together, encouraging and augmenting local efforts and resources, we can produce lasting change.

We aim to engage ASU academic units and students and connect them to support civic leaders at all levels, including municipal and service organizations, community-based agencies and local coalitions. Understanding that neither problems nor their solutions follow jurisdictions or boundaries, DSCS offers a space where collaborators can develop and test transdisciplinary, creative solutions for specific community challenges.

One Square Mile Initiative

The initial flagship project of the Design Studio for Community Solutions is The Maryvale One Square Mile Initiative. This project asks, and will answer, "what if social services, community development and leadership strategies were working off the same game plan? What might a Comprehensive Community Change Initiative in Maryvale look like?"

Meet the Team

The Design Studio for Community Solutions is a team of ASU faculty and students and also community champions, who live and work in Maryvale.

Allison Mullady, Director allison.mullady@asu.edu

Karolina Arredondo, Isaac Community Champion duran.karolina@icloud.com

Kimberly Medina Rios College Peer Advisor ASU Sophomore, Medical Microbiology kmedinar@asu.edu

Wendy Ruiz Xicale College Peer Advisor ASU Sophomore, Business Management wruizxic@asu.edu

Stephanie Castillo, Program Coordinator

Rosie Espinoza, Cartwright Community Champion roziee0514@gmail.com

Monaliza Hernandez College Peer Advisor ASU Sophomore, Nursing msherna7@asu.edu

Manuel Elizalde College Peer Advisor ASU Sophomore, Public Service and Public Policy melizal2@asu.edu

Michelle Blagg-Catone, Program Coordinator, Sr.

Kendelle Brown, Opportunities for Youth, Senior Program Manager

Community Outreach

The Design Studio team has taken part in a many community outreach engagements. During the Spring of 2021, the Design Studio team, with the Valley Interfaith Project, canvassed the Cartwright One Square Mile to inform residents of a COVID-19 vaccine location in their neighborhood, at St Vincent de Paul. Additionally, in the Summer/Fall of 2021, the Design Studio canvassed the neighborhood around Isaac Middle School to chat with residents, to hand out school supplies to children and to inform them of free internet available in their area, as a part of a digital equity project with ASU’s University Technology Office to connect the unconnected in the Isaac One Square Mile of Maryvale. The Design Studio also participates in Heart of Isaac Community Center’s Monthly Community Resources Days.

Design Studio for Community Solutions

About the Design Studio

Our Initiatives:

Opportunities for Youth (OFY)

The Concept

One Square Mile Initiative

Meet the Team

Community Outreach

DSCS News

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College Units

Resources

Community Engagement