A lived experience–led partnership combining firsthand knowledge of public systems with a decade of human-centered design practice — helping county departments, state agencies, and community organizations produce better outcomes together.
Our partnership is built on a simple premise: the people with firsthand experience of public systems hold essential knowledge for improving them. We structure every engagement to bring that knowledge into the room — alongside the agency staff and partners already doing the work.
A lived experience–led firm specializing in homelessness and housing response systems. We surface the gaps that administrative data misses and translate community knowledge into institutional action.
About Dalbert Design →A strategic consultancy with 10+ years partnering with governments and nonprofits. We use co-design, community engagement, and systems thinking to shape more just, resilient public services.
About CivicMakers →Our partnership gives clients access to what neither organization can offer independently — rigorous human-centered design methods combined with the firsthand knowledge of people who have lived the experiences your programs are designed to address.
Advisor frameworks, compensation structures, and feedback loops that keep community intelligence reaching decision-makers throughout your engagement.
Trust-first strategies, plain language, and co-design sessions that surface genuine insight — not performed consensus — from the communities you serve.
Participatory research, service blueprints, and actionable evaluation reports tested with the people they're built for.
Homelessness strategic plans and departmental roadmaps that connect policy intent to community experience — strengthening plan language, improving uptake, and producing better long-term outcomes.
We bring something most consultancies can't: a team member who has personally experienced the systems your programs are designed to serve — and knows from the inside what works, what's missing, and what would make a real difference.
Participatory research that restores trust, upholds dignity, and uncovers insights that administrative systems routinely obscure.
We examine how referral pathways actually work — identifying trust gaps, breakdowns, and design failures that data doesn't capture.
Working alongside your team and the people you serve to translate learning into plans, tools, and structures with shared ownership.
Feedback structures that outlast the engagement — so community intelligence keeps reaching decision-makers long after we step back.
Our signature framework trains people with lived experience in civic intelligence research, AI-directed analysis, and policy engagement. LELI is a universal model — built to be customized to any municipality and the communities it serves.
Organizations we've worked with
We're taking on new engagements across California. Let's talk about what this looks like for your department or initiative.