About

Co-Creation Labs is the community capacity building arm of Capacity to Serve, Inc. (EIN: 81-4091072) who mission is to develop healthy leaders, organizations and communities based upon a holistic approach to human development that includes social, physical, educational, and spiritual health.

Co-creation is the idea that the greatest value develops through the shared investment of diverse creators.

It means that groups reach outside their organization to invite those who will benefit from what they create in the process. In co-creation, insiders cooperate with outsiders to create something better. 

Some of the early leaders in co-creation are exemplified by LEGO Group's collaboration with customers to improve product designs as well as Harley-Davidson's engagement with customers to customize motorcycles. This powerful idea spread as the Internet grew and today it is used in many industries including technology, consumer goods and education. 

Applying this idea in communities began with many of the community-based development initiatives, who saw that community ownership of solutions was critical. Our own team launched participation-based research programs beginning in 2003 which flowed from intersection of research and community development.

Our team has extensive experience in the development and implementation of participatory research, community outreach and the processes that bring together co-creation effectively. We have authored manuals on this process, offer both consulting and turn-key resources.

Co-creation goes much deeper than it’s current practice in business and development. As a concept it is tied to the fabric of how communities are formed and how they thrive. Co-Creation labs started out under the name of Compassion by Design in 2007, which speaks to the underlying belief that human flourishing, and community health is part of the creative design for the planet. We also carry with us the experience from Compassion by Design in which we learned that engaging community members directly with the challenges faced by the community causes compassion to rise. 

We believe that compassion is an activator for human action.

Co-creation is how communities solve their biggest challenges.

The issues facing your customers, members, and communities are too big to solve alone. No single government, charity or organization can shift the realities that work to undermine the quality of life in so many places. These challenges require that communities and organizations that do business and exist their work together in strategic collaboration. That’s what Co-Creation Labs serves to catalyze.

Co-creation is what humans were built to do.

With the many industries and disciplines that now lean on co-creation as a part of their strategy, we feel it is important to undergird these practical efforts with insights from the discipline of theology which informs our approach to co-creation. The big problems that communities face always have an underlying spiritual problem, too. We believe that the foundational principles of our planet and human existence put humans in the role of co-creation with the original creator who provided the raw materials and inherent order that set the stage for our work and inventiveness.

It is our view that humans are not merely passive recipients of creation but active participants who are called to cooperate in caring for and cultivating the earth. Humans are not mere spectators but active agents in the ongoing process of creation, redemption, and spiritual growth. In communities where this is true, humans flourish.

Co-creation recognizes shared ownership.

Co-creation in community development emphasizes the importance of collaboration, inclusivity, and shared ownership in creating positive social change and building resilient, thriving communities.

We’re a project of Capacity to Serve, Inc. a 501c3 Nonprofit based in Virginia.