If your organization is able to establish a standing co-design team of adults and children who work together over the course of the year, one good way to kick it off is with a summer camp. Camp allows for intense work in learning what co-design is as well as establishing relationships as co-designers. With so much time, teams are also often able to get a substantial amount of work done on projects that will continue throughout the year!
- When the long-standing co-design team at University of Maryland was first established, each year began with a two-week daily summer camp. While this timeline is ideal as it allows ample time to connect, designers have since found that a one-week camp can work as well.
- Summer camp is ideally when new team members join the team – both adults and children. More experienced adult and child co-designers on the team can be role models and help to onboard new partners.
- While some design work will get done during the summer camp, the primary goal of summer camp is to establish relationships and norms of participating on a co-design team. As such, ample time should be given to the less structured times of the day. For example, if a session is typically 90 minutes, plan them to be 120 minutes in the summer. Use some of this extra time to extend informal times for relationship building. A sample Kidsteam Summer Camp Day might be:
- 10:00 – 10:30 a.m. – Arrival, breakfast snack, informal time
- 10:30 a.m. – noon – Design Session One
- Noon – 1:00 p.m. Lunch
- 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. Informal team building activity such as outdoor games, walk to a closeby ice cream store
- 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. – Design Session Two
- 3:30 – 4:00 p.m. Informal time and final snack
- Additionally, use time over lunch to plan fun activities. These may include heading outside for walks or games, or to get special treats. These times again allow for relationship building and trust to be formed. The first morning is also often used for team-building activities that focus on collaboration and communication.
- During design session time, focus on introducing design techniques that might be used throughout the year. While it is appropriate and beneficial to continue work on pre-existing or new projects, consider trying to introduce all techniques so that at sessions during the year these will already be familiar to the team.
- As with a year of design team, end with a celebration! Have snacks, invite family and friends, and share the design work, processes, and successes you have had during summer camp.
