Women of Banglatown is a community arts organization serving first generation and immigrant girls and young women. I helped design and implement a community listening and visioning process.
My Contributions:
Facilitated planning with project partners and collaborators
Engagement strategy and listening session design
Creative prompts, worksheets, and engagement materials
Listening session facilitation
Participant input synthesis
Multilingual activity book content development
Final report writing, design, and multilingual production
Client work completed with The Work Department
Featured photography by Ali Lapetina
When WOB received a Kresge Innovative Projects: Detroit planning grant, the organization was rethinking how future programs, resources, and spaces could better support first-generation and immigrant girls, young women, and families.
I helped develop one of WOB’s first community-wide engagement processes. Through five listening sessions with 39 girls and women across generations, we used creative prompts, drawing, reflection, and discussion to identify community priorities and aspirations for the future.
I guided the engagement process, from planning and facilitation to syntheasis and production. Participant input surfaced shared themes around safety, creativity, care, intergenerational connection, and belonging.
Those themes informed a multilingual activity book and final report in English, Bangla, and Arabic. The work helped WOB establish a community-defined vision for its future, creating a foundation for fundraising, program development, and planning for a permanent space and outdoor gathering area shaped by the people it serves.