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RECENT WORK

Ridiculously Hopeful Futures for a Human-Centered Government
Participatory Experiential Futures (PXF) to elevate participant voice in public benefits
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BayREN – Equity Assessment of an Energy Efficiency Program
Helping to make an energy efficiency program more equitable
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Calbright College – Quality Jobs Framework
A customized framework to define ‘good jobs’ according to Calbright students
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EPIC | Humboldt County Benefits Access Pilot
A pilot program to close benefits cliffs, co-designed with community members and service providers
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5-Year Technology Roadmap for Berkeley Public Library
Developing a 5-Year Technology Roadmap through an equitable engagement process
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What We Do

We unearth insights and co-create solutions to public challenges through strategic planning, community engagement and human-centered design.

Listen

For every challenge, we come in with an open mindset and an inquisitive spirit. We help surface insights by engaging individual people where they are, in the way that is most accessible to them.

Learn

We dive deep to understand people’s pain points, needs, hopes, and fears. We examine how people relate to each other, and make visible the multiple, intersecting, and layered systems and perspectives that affect decision-making.

Make

We know what works in the real world, understand the unique challenges of the public sector, and want to see our partners continue to succeed. That’s why we work with our partners to turn learning into tools that build their capacity to take on future challenges.

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Insights & Learning

Ideas, tools, and resources from our community of CivicMakers

Blog Post
Ridiculously Hopeful Futures Meets Meeting of the Minds
At California Workforce Association’s (CWA) Meeting of the Minds conference in Monterey (September 2025), we invited participants to time travel…
By CivicMakers
5 Min Read
Read Ridiculously Hopeful Futures Meets Meeting of the Minds
Blog Post
Co-Designing Technology for Human-Centered Public Services
Background In the Spring of 2025, our Ridiculously Hopeful Futures (RHF) project invited community members and public benefits administrators across…
By CivicMakers
6 Min Read
Read Co-Designing Technology for Human-Centered Public Services
Blog Post
Four Key Takeaways from a Co-Design Session in Humboldt County
At a time when public benefits programs are in a state of uncertainty due to the utter chaos ensuing at…
By CivicMakers
5 Min Read
Read Four Key Takeaways from a Co-Design Session in Humboldt County
resource
Ecosystem Mapping
A visual tool to understand the people, organizations, and systems shaping a problem or experience.
Read Ecosystem Mapping

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ABOUT US

A team of pragmatic optimists

CivicMakers is a strategic consultancy and community of practitioners that believe in the power of inclusive, collaborative design. We envision a world where every person has the tools, skills, and capacities to advance collaborative decision-making, and every community has what they need to co-create solutions.

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