Skills 4 Life is a Canadian non-profit organization dedicated to empowering youth by providing life skills, career training, and social entrepreneurship opportunities. Their mission is to help young people thrive by equipping them with practical tools to build brighter futures. Serving primarily underserved youth aged 14-25, Skills 4 Life focuses on fostering resilience, independence, and community impact.
Background and Context
Challenges
1. Addressing Barriers to Access:
Youth in underserved communities face challenges such as transportation, financial constraints, and systemic inequities. Using a human-centered design approach, we worked directly with the youth to identify these barriers, ensuring the program addressed their specific needs and removed obstacles to participation.
2. Finding the Right Business Model:
Creating a sustainable program required balancing beneficiary needs with practical, viable solutions. Using Design Thinking, we explored innovative approaches at the intersection of youth aspirations, organizational goals, and resource constraints, ensuring the program was impactful and sustainable.
3. Resource and Capacity Challenges:
Small community organizations like Skills 4 Life often have an outsized impact despite limited resources and capacity. By applying a service design lens, we took a systems perspective to program design, identifying efficiencies and streamlining processes to reduce pressure on the organization while maximizing program effectiveness and scalability.
“ Working with Design Centered Co. was an incredible experience for our team at Skills 4 Life. They truly listened to our goals and challenges and helped us create a program that is both impactful and sustainable. ”
– Chris Thompson, Skills for Life
Solutions
- Social Enterprise Business Plan: We co-developed a business plan rooted in insights from youth, community partners, and stakeholders. This plan provides a clear, actionable roadmap for Skills 4 Life, outlining how to execute their vision and focus on measurable impact. By aligning the program’s goals with the needs of its beneficiaries and partners, the plan ensures Skills 4 Life can drive sustainable and meaningful change.
- Audience Understanding Through Personas: To help Skills 4 Life better understand their target demographic, we created detailed personas and design artifacts based on research findings. These tools offer a practical way to make grounded, informed decisions about the program’s design and direction. They also provide a long-term resource for the organization to adapt and refine their approach as the needs of their audience evolve.
- Enhanced Capacity for Innovation: Skills 4 Life’s team gained hands-on experience in systems thinking and service design, building skills to drive ongoing innovation. This capacity-building effort ensures the organization can continuously adapt and refine their programs to meet evolving challenges and opportunities.
Benefits and Outcomes
The collaboration delivered lasting benefits for Skills 4 Life, empowering the organization and the youth they serve:
1. A Clear Path Forward with a Social Enterprise Plan:
The co-created business plan provided Skills 4 Life with an actionable and focused roadmap to execute their vision. Grounded in insights from beneficiaries, community partners, and stakeholders, the plan ensures measurable impact and a sustainable path for growth.
2. Audience-Centered Decision-Making Tools:
The development of detailed personas and design artifacts equips Skills 4 Life with practical tools to understand their audience deeply. These resources enable the organization to make informed, grounded decisions about program design and direction, ensuring alignment with current and future needs.
3. Empowered Youth with Real Opportunities:
The program’s design equips participants with life skills and entrepreneurial fundamentals, creating pathways for personal growth and community impact. By addressing barriers to access and tailoring opportunities to their needs, the program fosters confidence and resilience in underserved youth.
“Their expertise in Service Design and Design Thinking not only brought our vision to life but also gave us the tools and skills to continue innovating for the youth we serve.”
– Chris Thompson, Skills for Life
