Core77 has announced their winners for the Core77 Design Awards of 2016 and our own Parsons DESIS Lab has landed the recognition of ‘notable’ under the Service Design category!

Parsons DESIS Lab developed ‘Designing for Financial Empowerement (DFE)’ in a cross-sector effort between them, the City of New York and Citi Community Development to explore how service design can be used to make public sector financial empowerment services more effective and accessible. This landmark initiative challenges the cycle of poverty by holistically examining current public policy and services; understanding the interrelated needs of New York City’s most vulnerable populations; and enabling community members to participate in the co-design of the very services that they use, alongside policymakers, advocates and service providers.

“We thought that the problem DFE is solving was very clear, helping people who don’t have the education or knowledge around financial terms and services understand these better in terms of their own financial independence.” – Jury Commentary