A retrospective: 15 years of work

Inneract Project started in 2004, with a purpose, to teach youth of color about design. As a grassroots organization, we learned, failed and evolved. It became apparent that without context, education would only have a marginal effect—if our students did not see designers that reflect the realities of their worlds, they might not see a place for themselves. The years of developing our program taught us that to impact students, we needed to think about multiple touch points, to develop a strategy for building retention and accountability.

IP wants this new post-millennial class equipped with the skills that will not only land them in a career of their choice, but will also empower them to create the career of their choice.

— Maurice Woods, Inneract Project Founder/Executive Director

Inneract Project has spent the last 15 years, creating, testing, learning and innovating—ultimately developing our “Pathway to Design” model—a systematic approach that considers a multitude of factors to support youth—through community, families, mentors, volunteer networks, companies and scaling to other cities. Our work is a reflection of our values, to see a world where people of color can feel empowered to design products and services they care about, to use design as a means for expression and/or change within their community. IP’s wants this new post-millennial class equipped with the skills that will not only land them in a career of their choice, but will also empower them to create the career of their choice. This shift in focus means that as we further develop our work, we must think about the future workforce, and how technology will shape not only the products we design but the way we design them.