Public service without public trust is no service at all.

Whether you're in city government, a public agency, or elected office, you’ve felt the weight of public mistrust. When public systems fail to listen, communities tend to disengage. From civic planning to policymaking, the Re/Designing Trust Action Lab equips government leaders and public servants with tools to rebuild relationships, center resident voices, and co-create interventions that earn lasting trust.

Example Trust Redesign Opportunities in Government and Public Service:

Residents feel excluded from city budgeting decisions, leading to frustration and accusations of misallocated funds.

Policies are created in offices far removed from the people they impact, causing confusion, resentment, and disengagement.

Government projects (e.g., redevelopment, infrastructure, zoning) move forward without public trust or consent.

People with lived experience of poverty, incarceration, or immigration face policy decisions made without their voice.

Residents of historically excluded neighborhoods are refusing to participate in public planning meetings, citing decades of ignored feedback and performative outreach. Additionally, communities harmed by past government actions (e.g., urban renewal, displacement, surveillance) feel ignored or retraumatized by current engagement efforts.

Across four powerful days, reimagine civic systems with residents and communities, not for them. Build tools, practices, and policies that shift accountability, restore relationships, and earn trust where it’s been lost. Government and public services can work—but only if we’re willing to redesign how they show up.

The Re/Designing Trust Action Lab: Government and Public Service will culminate in co-created trust-based interventions that will be publicly disseminated to drive industry-wide systems change.

This is not a retreat. It’s a reckoning. Walk in with a problem. Walk out with a plan—and a community.

Rebuilding Trust in Government and Public Service Starts Here.

By the end of the Re/Designing Trust Action Lab: Government and Public Service experience, participants will be able to:

• Identify historical and systemic injustices—such as discriminatory policies, redlining, surveillance, and civic disenfranchisement—that have contributed to deep-rooted mistrust between public institutions and excluded and underinvested communities.
• Examine their roles, decision-making authority, and institutional power within public systems, and how their identities and positions impact trust and access in service delivery and policy implementation.
• Co-create trust-centered public service interventions that directly respond to historical and contemporary harms experienced by underinvested neighborhoods and residents.
• Develop actionable strategies for long-term public engagement that move beyond tokenistic town halls or performative statements to authentic, community-driven processes that foster mutual respect and institutional accountability.
• Strengthen their capacity to embed dignity, equity, and trust into public systems by reimagining how government policies, communications, and operations can repair harm, restore relationships, and earn sustained community trust.

By the end of the Re/Designing Trust Action Lab: Government and Public Service experience, graduates will receive:

• Invitation to the Institute of Equitable Design and Justice online network, including a private online community of practice for the Re/Designing Trust Lab alumni

• Alumni-only virtual gatherings

• Access to Lab Report Newsletter

• Certificate of Completion

• Name acknowledgment in sector-specific Re/Designing Trust in Action Lab Trust Report

• Bonus: Redesigners for Justice™ Participation Pin and Sticker

• Bonus: Equity-Centered Community Design™ 1.0 field guide (by Creative Reaction Lab)

• Bonus: Nature of Trust Bio 360 Report (by Biomimicry 3.8 & Biomimicry for Social Innovation)

$2,444 per person
$444 or $0 for Living Impact Expert

Buy One, Sponsor One: Each full-price registration covers your tuition and also sponsors a complimentary ticket for a living expert—an individual directly impacted by the industry of focus who does not work within it.

During registration, you may nominate a qualified living expert or designate someone to receive your sponsored ticket. Student participants can receive volunteer hours for participation in the program.

If you’re a living impact expert, learn more about and/or apply for a Gertrude Jackson Scholarship (full scholarship) and Jack Burke Scholarship (partial scholarship) below.

Re/Designing Trust Action Lab: Government & Public Service

$2,444.00

Register Here