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Design isn’t just creativity — it’s care. In this episode, Gerry sits down with Ali Fawkes, Head of Social Innovation at Humanly (founded by Jenni Parker) to unpack practical safeguarding and trauma-informed practice in design research. We trace Ali’s unconventional route from fine art and special education into service design, talk honestly about imposter feelings and labels, and get concrete about how to design safely — for participants and practitioners — especially on sensitive, high-stakes work.

You’ll learn

• How non-traditional backgrounds become real superpowers in design
• What “designing safely” actually looks like (policies, consent, escalation paths)
• How to prepare teams for disclosures (e.g., hopelessness/suicidality) without freezing the work
• Why safer practice reassures clients and improves outcomes

Guest: Ali Fawkes, Head of Social Innovation, Humanly (London)

Connect with Ali on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alifawkes

Shout-out to SDinGov for the spark.

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Click here to watch a video of this episode.

Click here to view the episode transcript.