Our Test Fits initiative leverages the creative energy and collaborative spirit of its members. In order to help local businesses, non-profits, and institutions respond to the crisis, Design Advocates is adapting their spaces and operations for reopening, creating strategies to ensure safe and comfortable continuing operation. Test Fits is currently serving clients on a pro-bono basis, assisting social services organizations such as the Bowery Residents Committee and Housing Works, community institutions such as the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce, New York City public schools, public libraries, and arts organizations, and restaurants such as Kopitiam in Chinatown and Le Paris Dakar and La Napa in Crown Heights. Inherent in the broader mission of Design Advocates is a commitment to providing long-term design solutions to the most vulnerable, now and in the future.

Creating a seat at the table for the design community to provide input and receive work is central to their mission to empower designers to help safely guide New York City into the future. Thinking creatively on behalf of all types of small businesses, non-profits, and community organizations, Design Advocates also aims to investigate how specific needs can be addressed through design and through advocacy on an agency or governmental level.

Through the process of collaboration between all of the design firms involved, the clients, experts, governmental agencies, and stakeholders, we hope to build a new framework through which equitable design outcomes, driven by mutual advocacy can be established.