As part of a new initiative to encourage youth-led innovation and increase civic participation, DK&A and Design Thinkers Academy London have partnered with Ealing Borough Council to launch The Urban Hack – a new public Service Design programme for Lower Sixth students. The pilot programme of The Urban Hack will take place in partnership with Greenford High School in Ealing, with the first component, a 3-Day Service Design Fundamentals Course, starting in October 2024.
“National challenges, like climate breakdown, have a local dimension. We have a new generation of thoughtful digital natives brimming with ideas.
The Urban Hack provides an opportunity to tap into this creativity, bring benefits to the community, and open up new career opportunities for young people.
It could be a winning formula for London and for our education system - which urgently needs to link STEM and creative curricula.” DK&A Director David Kester, ex CEO of the UK Design Council.
The Urban Hack is an innovation lab for young change-makers. The project aims to empower young people with technical and transferable skills for their future, whilst engaging them with their local council, and encouraging them to explore careers in Service Design and Policy. Learning with industry practitioners, thirty students will develop their Service Design skills and create their own innovation projects to generate solutions for challenges affecting their community, such as climate change, housing, and the cost-of-living crisis.
The Urban Hack is part of a wider vision by Ealing Borough Council to involve residents in the co-design and delivery of local services. The council have been prescient in their timing. Plans were laid to involve sixth formers many months ago, but the initiative is launching now, just as the new government are publicly stating that they want to renew the curriculum for A-level students to be broader and more balanced, with space for humanities and arts alongside STEM subjects.
“For our children to succeed, they need a grounding in both. They need knowledge and skills, practical problem-solving and academic rigour, curiosity and a love of learning – that’s always been critical.
But now, as the future rushes towards us, we also need a greater emphasis on creativity, on resilience, on emotional intelligence and the ability to adapt.” Sir Keir Starmer, 6 July 2023, Labour mission.
Upon the completion of a 3-day Service Design Fundamentals course, students will advance their project ideas through four coached modules. Following DK&A’s philosophy of ‘Teach and Do’, the modules will prepare students to present and showcase their projects to Senior Client Sponsors at Ealing Borough Council.
The project will give young people the skills and confidence to be change-makers in their local area and empower them to create innovative concepts for local delivery. With young people at the helm of the project, Design Thinkers Academy believes the collaboration between students and council will offer valuable insights for future services and help to build young people's understanding of civic participation.
“It is important that young people have the opportunity to contribute to local initiatives like this, to show them that they can be instrumental in shaping the world around them for the better. This collaboration highlights service design’s role in creating positive change for future generations”. Becky Lund-Harket – The Urban Hack Programme Producer.
With a replicable and teachable curriculum, The Urban Hack has the potential to develop and expand into a programme that reaches multiple schools and boroughs, allowing more young people to develop fundamental skills for their future, whilst at the same time increasing their engagement with civil society.
The Urban Hack delivered by DK&A, Design Thinkers Academy and Ealing Borough Council will launch at Greenford High School from September with the Service Design Fundamentals course scheduled for 15th-17th October 2024. The coached innovation projects will then be developed in the autumn, culminating in a graduation ceremony in December 2024.
