Design what’s possible.

Build what matters.

The Kyndred Collaborative is a social impact and design strategy firm that works across sectors to turn complex challenges into practical, community-rooted solutions. We partner with mission-driven organizations—from public agencies to grassroots nonprofits—to design programs, products, and strategies that push forward equity, resilience, and joy.

Our Services

Our work blends design thinking with deep community engagement, drawing on proven tools and human-centered methodologies to create impact that lasts. Whether we’re redesigning a mentorship model for students living in shelters, building digital tools to help parents navigate conversations about race, or developing strategic plans that unlock organizational growth—our approach is hands-on, collaborative, and built for real-world results.

  • Designing stronger programs through participatory methods that center community voices and translate vision into action.

    • Progress Playbook – The Renaissance Project
      Redesigned a public housing business incubator using co-design methods that centered resident voices, leading to a curriculum and coaching model grounded in lived experience and real-world business launches.

    • NYC DOE – Sankofa Mentoring Program
      Scaled and refined a mentorship program for students living in shelters, aligning program strategy with student needs and DOE systems, and customizing implementation at each school site.

    • Farm & Wilderness – Tamarack Farm Redesign
      Reimagined a teen leadership camp with alumni interviews, peer benchmarking, and stakeholder input to design a more relevant and engaging program aligned with youth development goals.

    • Queens Public Library – Hip Hop 50 Programming Network
      Coordinated over 40 libraries and institutions nationwide to develop and launch locally-rooted public programs as part of a national cultural celebration, creating a scalable model for decentralized partnership-led programming.

    • Community Counseling and Mediation – YOLO Program
      Designed and piloted a 10-week youth leadership program in NYC shelters where teens co-created and led peer workshops on community topics, demonstrating a replicable and adaptable program model.

  • Applying design thinking to build tools and experiences that are intuitive, scalable, and mission-aligned.

    • EmbraceRace – Color-Brave Caregiver Tools
      Designed digital tools for caregivers raising racially conscious children, including a card game and resource navigator, informed by user research and iterative prototyping.

    • Institute of Museum and Library Services – AR/VR Activations for Hip Hop 50
      Produced immersive digital activations (AR memorials, VR exhibits, interactive photo booths) that invited public engagement through culturally resonant experiences.

    • The Gates Preserve – Digital Hip Hop Archives
      Developed an interactive digital archive platform with creative tagging systems, modular storytelling, and dynamic user flows to preserve and explore hip hop history.

    • Progress Playbook – Entrepreneur Ecosystem Research & Platform Design
      Led a discovery and concept development initiative to support public housing entrepreneurs, combining market research, user insights, and co-design methods to shape a scalable digital platform of tools, business resources, and community connection spaces.

  • Using design-led strategy to align teams, clarify priorities, and create operational pathways for meaningful growth.

    • Farm & Wilderness – Growing for Good Strategic Plan
      Led a design-centered strategy process involving staff and board to co-create a 3-year roadmap grounded in core values, future opportunities, and internal alignment.

    • The Fair Chance Project – Organizational Design & Content Strategy
      Guided a justice-centered nonprofit support recently incarcerated individuals in defining its content and program direction through stakeholder interviews, internal strategy sessions, and vision alignment.

    • MiDaakye Foundation – Global Strategy and Capacity Building
      Led a design-driven strategic planning process to reimagine MiDaakye’s program delivery and internal operations across the U.S. and Ghana, delivering workshops that built actionable strategies while growing the organization’s long-term capacity for independent strategic leadership and global education impact.

  • Designing learning experiences and coaching frameworks that build confidence, clarity, and leadership from within.

    • Progress Playbook – Entrepreneur Coaching and Cohort Facilitation
      Designed coaching models and facilitated two entrepreneur cohorts for Progress Playbook, directly coaching eight businesses and embedding scalable leadership frameworks that are now integrated into their ongoing program delivery.

    • Urban Arts Partnership – Restorative Practice Training Design
      Co-designed human-centered training experiences to help Urban Arts Partnership embed restorative practices into school and youth programs, working with leadership to clarify scope and delivering workshops that supported deeper application and organizational alignment.

    • Farm & Wilderness – Outcome-to-Operations Coaching
      Provided one-on-one coaching to program directors and organizational leaders to align their programs to clear developmental outcomes, investigate new hypotheses about student impact, and design actionable pathways to achieve measurable growth and mission alignment.

  • Bringing a design lens to participatory research and evaluation—measuring what matters and making insight actionable.

    • Farm & Wilderness – Decoding Camp Magic & Opportunity Research
      Led a multi-year research and evaluation initiative that culminated in Farm & Wilderness’s first organizational impact report, surfacing developmental outcomes through alumni interviews and internal staff workshops. Built on those insights to conduct a follow-up market analysis exploring new programmatic opportunities and competitive positioning across youth leadership programs.

    • Mayor’s Office for Neighborhood Safety – Community Profit Framework
      Developed a participatory research and co-design process to define what community thriving means in public housing contexts, resulting in a usable framework and toolkit for small business owners.

We specialize in:

Group of people standing in a circle in a room with chairs, facing each other, with displays on the walls and casual attire.
A person in a white shirt seated among a group of people, pointing to a document that reads "What Do You Value?" with a list of values and descriptions. The setting appears to be an educational or workshop environment, with participants engaged in discussion.
Children wearing yellow hard hats building a wooden structure in a forest setting.
A person photographs a display commemorating "Rapper's Delight" by Sugar Hill Gang, depicting three members of the group and a vintage turntable with stickers, set in a hallway labeled 'Queen's History Hallway.'
Group of people sitting around tables in a room, engaged in a meeting or workshop, with red cups and papers on the tables. Some people are standing in the back, near a whiteboard with diagrams.
Two people looking at a poster about Panthera, an organization focused on saving big cats, with a logo and text description.
A group of people holding Black Lives Matter signs and banners in a peaceful protest outside a building with columns. They are raising their fists in solidarity and wearing casual clothing. The protest seems to be taking place on a sunny day in front of the Brooklyn Borough Hall.
"Community Profit" graphic explaining how locally-owned small businesses boost economic growth and community improvement, featuring colorful side bars and community-themed icons like a hand with a plant, a key, a location marker, shaking hands, a book, people interconnected, and a building. Text outlines benefits such as enhanced safety and stronger social bonds.

How We Work

We approach every project with a commitment to collaboration, creativity, and lasting impact.

  • Participatory methods that center the people closest to the challenge, ensuring solutions are grounded in lived experience.

  • Design thinking tools applied across strategy, product, coaching, and research to move ideas into action.

  • Capacity building embedded into every engagement — we not only deliver strong outcomes but also equip our clients to sustain and grow the work independently.

  • Multi-phase partnerships that evolve over time as trust, opportunity, and ambition grow.

To meet each project's unique needs, we assemble tailored teams of designers, strategists, and researchers. While many projects today are built around the leadership of our principal strategist, we create space for teams to expand and evolve — ensuring every collaboration has the right expertise, creativity, and energy to move bold ideas forward.

Client Stories: How Our Partnerships Grow

Strengthening a Legacy Organization

Farm & Wilderness Foundation

From strategic planning to impact reporting, we helped a legacy youth organization evolve for the future.

Over several years, we worked alongside Farm & Wilderness to strengthen every layer of their organization. We began by leading a design-driven strategic planning process, then expanded into coaching program directors, documenting and aligning developmental outcomes, and conducting market research to identify future growth opportunities. Together, we helped transform both the structure and story of a historic institution, setting the stage for its next generation of leadership and impact.

Starting with coaching, we helped build the foundation for a scalable ecosystem of community entrepreneurship.

Our partnership with Progress Playbook began with one-on-one coaching for entrepreneurs navigating the early stages of business development. It expanded into redesigning the Renaissance Project incubator to better center community voices and lived experiences. Today, we continue to partner with Progress Playbook—facilitating new cohorts and designing the foundation for a digital learning and resource platform that will expand their reach across public housing communities and deepen their long-term impact.

Scaling Entrepreneurial Opportunity

Progress Playbook

Building Systems for Student Success

NYC Department of Education

We designed new pathways for youth success—and built the systems to sustain them.


Our work with the NYC Department of Education began with the creation of the YOLO Program, a youth-led leadership initiative in shelters. That collaboration expanded into scaling the SIMBA/ASET out-of-school programs, helping the DOE refine structure, strengthen impact, and grow critical student supports after the pandemic. Building on that success, we developed the Sankofa Mentoring Program—designed specifically for students living in temporary housing—and helped build the DOE’s capacity by growing their mentoring team from three to twenty-five staff members through hiring, training, and management support.

Clients & Partners:

Collage of logos from various organizations including End Perpetual Punishment, Reroot Research, Farm & Wilderness, Life Camp, Institute of Museum and Library Services, Dhan J Consulting, Queens Public Library, NYC Department of Education, The Gates Preserve, Grinand Bare LLC, Community Counseling & Mediation, Farm & Wilderness Conservation, Progress Playbook, and EmbraceRace.