How Inneract Project is shaping the future of Underrepresented Youth with Maurice Woods

Masters of Community with David Spinks

In this episode of Masters of Community, we speak with Maurice Woods, Principal Design Lead at Microsoft and Founder and Executive Director of the Inneract Project. The Inneract Project is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing free design education to underrepresented minority youth, from middle school to high school, to college. Maurice shares his journey using design to ‘change the world’ and how he scaled the Inneract Project to reach thousands of students today. We dive into creating truly diverse and inclusive communities and companies by planning and preparing for the upcoming generation, not just the current pool of candidates. Learn how you can get involved in the Inneract Project and provide opportunities for underrepresented youth in this episode and on www.inneractproject.org Who is this episode for?: Non-Profit, In-Person & Online, Scaling 3 key takeaways: 1. Inneract Project was designed to educate and create opportunities to explore design in career and life for underrepresented youth. 2. Expand more broadly to the bigger issue of inclusivity and diversity. It goes beyond recruiting a diverse workplace and transcends to supporting the upcoming generation of youth and going to the environments where people of color are to see those barriers and work through them. 3. Designer Analogy: The contractor builds your home whereas the architect draws up the plans - they look and try to understand what the terrain is, who the people are, what materials are needed, etc. That is the difference between a designer and a product engineer. Notable Quotes: “That's what Inneract Project is trying to do, and that's what we're working on, and until companies really invest more broadly, they're going to be swimming in two feet of water. They're going to just be getting only a small segment of the potential opportunity that they could be getting if they reach more broadly and get more people of color into that business.” “Design plays a huge role in architecting and developing and helping all parties understand how something should be built and how do you build something that people can actually use and find the value out of.” Rapid fire question answers: 1. What’s your current go-to pump-up song? Disappear by Foreign Exchange 2. One concrete piece of advice that you would give to community builders in how to design communities intentionally? Start small and think scale. 3. What’s your favorite book to gift to others? Small Teaching by James M. Lang 4. What is your proudest mentoring moment? The student went through middle school, high school, and got accepted into design school - lots of retention and work. 5. Have you ever worn socks with sandals? No to flip-flops, yes to slip-on 6. Who in the world of the community would you like to take to lunch? Barack Obama 7. What advice would you give for others who are looking to have a similar impact on their work? Have passion. Care about the people you’re doing it for - that’s all that matters. 8. What is a community product or app you wish existed? Communities across the nation are able to connect with opportunities for their kids - especially with design. 9. What’s the weirdest community you’ve been a part of? A breakdancing community where they would go to parties and practice their dancing and represent. 10. How do we identify and misappropriate people of color through visual representation? We have a prejudice that informs how we interact with other groups outside of our own. Images and portrayals haven’t been communicated by people of color but by whites for years. 7. If you’re on your death bed and you could only leave one piece of life advice behind for all the future generations, what would that advice be? The measurement of success is helping others.

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