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Together Academy

Together Academy is a learn by doing innovation program where participants work in cross-departmental teams to solve challenges facing the City while learning the principles of human centered design, project management, and lean process improvement.

We are recruiting for our first 2024/2025 cohort. If you are interested in participating fill out the interest form and we will follow up once we have the design teams established. The program culminates in a showcase where design teams will present their project to the City team.

If you aren't able to join this cohort, don't worry, we will be setting up another cohort later next year.

Design Teams will be focusing on:

  1. Together San Rafael culture and guiding principles: What should Together San Rafael look like for the next 5 years? This group will lead the re-imagining of Together San Rafael's culture of inclusion by re-visiting our guiding principles, engaging with other members of the City team, and helping to design the blueprint for how we Together San Rafael shows up in our organization.
  2. Open Challenges: We will be creating up to 2 design teams that will focus on an internal challenge based on input from the interest form.

Schedule

Topic Timing Format
Session 1 | Intro to Human-Centered Design + Scoping & Project Mgmt Nov 1st, 10am – 2pm In-Person (4hrs)
Office Hour | Questions about homework or program (open to all participants) Nov 15 Virtual (1 hr)
Session 2 | Design Research Nov 22 In-Person (4hrs)
Session 3 | Designing Data Collection Dec 6, 10am – 2pm In-Person (4hrs)
Coaching Sessions | Finalize Data Collection Dec 9 - Dec 20 Virtual (1 hr)
Session 4 | Conducting Research + Intro to Lean Process Refinement Jan 17, 10am - 2pm In-Person (4hrs)
Session 5 | Frameworks to Identify Themes Jan 31, 10am - 2pm In-Person (4hrs)
Coaching Sessions | Data Analysis support Week of Feb 3 Virtual (1 hr)
Session 6 | Using Data to Inform Decisions Feb 28, 10am - 2pm In-Person (4hrs)
Coaching Sessions | Turn challenge statements into HMWs Week of March 10 Virtual (1 hr)
Session 7 | Ideation & Prioritization March 14, 10am - 2pm In-Person (4hrs)
Session 8 | Prototyping March 28, 10am - 2pm In-Person (4hrs)
Session 9 | Storytelling April 25, 10am - 2pm In-Person (4hrs)
Coaching Sessions | Prepping for showcase Weeks April 28 & May 5 Virtual (1 hr)
Showcase May 9, 2024, time tbd In-Person (3 hrs)
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