WHO WE ARE
The Women+ of Color Equity Design Institute (WCEDI) is a mission-aligned program of Zora’s House that transforms our commitment to equity into action and impact. Just as products are designed to meet consumer needs, programs and systems are designed to address community challenges. Yet the women+ of color most affected by economic and social inequities are too often excluded from shaping those solutions.
WCEDI changes that. We bring together women+ of color with deep lived expertise and pair them with local corporations, nonprofits, and public sector partners to co-design programs, policies, and systems that are more effective, more equitable, and more sustainable.
As both a social impact initiative and a revenue-generating arm of Zora’s House, the Institute channels the brilliance of women+ of color into lasting organizational change—while fueling Zora’s House’s broader mission to create spaces of belonging, leadership, and innovation for women+ of color across our community.
OUR FEMIFESTO
We envision a world where liberation, safety, & unapologetic existence are possible for Women+ of color, in Columbus and everywhere we are.
We co-design space, experiences, policies, community (and whatever the hell we want!) through taking space, connecting authentically, centering lived experience & brilliance, and investing in healing-centered practices.
We are fueled by lineages of ancestral wisdom, collective power and love.
We imagine.
We collaborate.
We design.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A DESIGN Client?
Do you have a new program, project, or idea that could benefit from the valuable community expertise of people with lived experiences? Do you want to engage your team in community-centered principles, while creating innovative and dynamic solutions to systemic inequity? We work with corporations, non-profits, and public sector partners who are launching, re-launching, or re-imagining programs and policies that will impact diverse populations.
Through our tiered service packages, WCEDI partners with organizations and collectives to:
Design or refine programs that resonate with evolving markets and communities
Improve internal systems—like hiring, performance management, and operations—through an equity lens
Co-create strategy with trained women of color co-designers who bring both professional expertise and lived experience
Our clients have seen measurable gains in team alignment, stakeholder trust, and strategic clarity—all while advancing their mission and equity commitments.
WFCO
“I found that… the participants were very prepared and really open to learning and supporting the project. [Co-designers] were honest and thoughtful and really pushed the bounds of our project in a positive and meaningful way.”
Project: Re-design a research study protocol that creates safe and empowering space for WOC to be vulnerable
YWCA
“We worked with young people with lived experience with homelessness. Everyone was respectful and welcoming of our team and approached everything with a curiosity that was very refreshing. I felt like true relationships were formed.”
Project: Design a youth space within the YWCA Family Center
Workforce Development Collaborative
Our design sprint with the workforce development collaborative focused on building supportive and connected routes toward shared prosperity. Through deep community collaboration, we designed four possible pathways forward that focus on collaboration and lasting impacts to expand equitable opportunities across 11 counties of central Ohio.
What if we… design and expand roadmaps that practice and pilot career development opportunities for: High school students (14-21), recent post-graduate students, early career professionals, and current employers, companies, and stakeholders to build supportive and connective routes towards shared prosperity for communities across the 11 counties of central Ohio?
Mother’s Trust Alliance
Our design sprint with Mother’s Trust Alliance (MTA) generated four possible pathways toward creating a program that is aligned with the assets and needs of Black parents and pregnant people.
What if we… provided consistent, stable income during pregnancy through three years post-partum for Black pregnant people towards a reciprocal community-driven cohort model that invests in the brilliance of Black pregnant people, their collective power building & economic freedom?
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A CO-DESIGNER?
Our co-designers may not think of themselves as designers. They are creatives, activists, professionals, entrepreneurs, dreamers, community organizers, and young people who identify as women+ of color in Columbus, OH. They have LIVED EXPERIENCE navigating challenges in their lives and community, and coming out on the other side. They are passionate about creating a more equitable community where women+ of color – and everyone – can thrive.
SEE OUR IMPACT
In the spring of 2023 we posed the question: “In our quest to create an equitable economy, how might we design a city that hears, responds to, and implements a vision of economic prosperity designed by those most impacted by the obstacles - women of color?” The Women of Color Equity Design Institute was our answer. Then we revised and refined our process to ensure that organizations of all sizes could benefit from equity design