Join or Start a Local Node

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Facilitators Connect

Join us for the monthly #FacilitatorsConnect meetings, held the first Thursday of each month - the times vary to allow for participation across the globe! These meetings are for DJN members who are currently active facilitators of Design Justice Network Local Nodes or Working Groups, or for folks who are in the process of starting up a new Node. Check our Events Page to see when the next one will be hosted!

What do local nodes do?

Nodes are a key part of a thriving network. Just as in botany, where a node is the part of a plant stem where new leaves emerge, a local node within the Design Justice Network is a space for local members to gather and grow design justice related projects, ideas, processes, and community. 

DJN is a sponsored project of Allied Media Projects, and the local nodes have thus far developed as volunteer-driven and community-based groups. DJN local nodes and members are accountable to the communities they serve, through organizing work that reflects the design justice network principles.

Local nodes do things like:

  • Engage with and share personal experiences around the design justice principles

  • Assess and provide feedback on a given project using the design justice principles

  • Identify and organize around local issues using the design justice principles

  • Support local organizations and campaigns with design processes 

  • Support, foreground, and amplify the voices and practices of marginalized designers

  • Convene design justice related events and socials (for example, by hosting invited speakers, artists dates, connecting design practitioners to community organizers to build relationships…)

  • Host skillshare events, such as the “DiscoTechs” (Discovering Technology) events for communities (first coined by the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition).

  • Develop walking tours in your community using the design justice principles to observe your built environment

  • Organize a reading group

  • Engage in shared activities with other DJN local nodes 

And much more! What is your local node working on? Share what you're up to with other members on our Slack channel, or during our periodic Nodes Connect calls.

Don’t see your city/region on this list? Read our How to Organize a Local Node guide to get one up and running!
And our how to organize a local node zine!

Click the View Existing Local Nodes link below, to see a list of existing nodes.

Start a Local Node

Want to start a node in your city or region? Read our How to Organize a Local Node guide.