ID4-ME

Interior Design for Me: an after-school interior design program for communities of color

Diversity and inclusion in the Interior Design profession has been sorely lacking since its existence. Given the circumstances of society today, where communities are rising up to fight for equity and change, we feel we must do the same. As creatives, we value different perspectives and backgrounds, as a catalyst for innovative design and see the impact of design for all communities when our teams are made up of people from diverse communities. It helps us create and build spaces, where our designs can be made for all, by all and the experiences we create in these built spaces are as diverse as the people who created them.

Like many programs within K-12 schools, we know that the creative fields are often the first to lose funding, and as such, the exposure to opportunities in our field is rare, and even more so for communities of color from disadvantaged regions. This is happening with students in the lower grades, and particularly in high school, when students are beginning to formulate their ideas and desires around career choices.

For these reasons, we have developed an after-school program called ID4-ME, Interior Design for Me, with the goal of diversifying our profession by sharing knowledge and expertise about the practice of Interior Design as a career option to young students, specifically to students of color within disadvantaged communities.  The program engages high school students at Title 1 school to learn about the field through an 8-week program.  We have taken the students on a journey to explore the design of various spaces and the impact design has on the way we live, learn, work, and play.

Join us and share this afterschool program in your local community.

Read on for the full report.