Design Thinking to End Homelessness

Hand-painted poster that reads "END! HOMELESSNESS"

We partnered with City of Minneapolis and Hennepin County Office to End Homelessness in Spring 2012 on the redesign process of their single-adult’s emergency shelter system. Using design thinking we engaged three key stakeholder groups - shelter staff, shelter clients, and community stakeholders. Building empathy through sharing stories, participants made drawings of their experiences in the system, and defined the problem.

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We mapped the complex system, proposed solution ideas, developed prototypes, a timeline, and next steps for the transformation ahead. Workgroups developed during this process continued action on the systems change process. We discovered that it takes on average a new staff person 7 years to completely understand the complex system. ‘Making things visible’ is one design thinking mindset that will benefit everyone working to end homelessness.