Organized by the Association of Registered Graphic Designers (RGD), the So(cial) Good Design Awards is a biannual, international design competition that celebrates design’s undeniable power to incite meaningful action and make positive change. The awards recognize and provide a platform to design firms, agencies, individual designers and students to present their work done under the theme of communication design for social good.

The Path through Homelessness campaign, developed for the United Way KFL&A and the City of Kingston by BmDodo Strategic Design with photography by Bernard Clark, was selected for recognition under the Civil & Human Rights category by a group of 19 senior design leaders.

The aim of the campaign is to reduce stigma and connect people with resources that can help them. The campaign shares stories of individuals from different backgrounds that are homeless or have been homeless, showing how their path through life and experiences led to homelessness. The campaign highlights that the causes of homelessness are complex – and they’re different for everyone. Often, they include generational poverty, trauma, abuse or mental illness. Solutions need to be tailored to the individual. Sometimes it can take a few tries to get it right.

The challenges we face today have grown in complexity and gravity, and BmDodo Strategic Design recognizes and accepts our responsibility to employ our design skills, expertise and resources towards doing good and solving the issues our communities are confronted with today.

The winners will be honoured at a ceremony taking place on June 1 at the Vancouver Playhouse as part of the DesignThinkers Conference. An exhibit of the winners will travel across Canada launching at the Vancouver Public Library, (Central Library Branch) from May 29 to June 10, followed by Stanley A. Milner Library in Edmonton from June 14 to 29 and the Kingston Frontenac Public Library from September 18 to October 2. Winners are also featured in a printed Awards Annual and across RGD’s communications channels reaching over 70,000.

For more information about the campaign, please visit www.pathhomekingston.ca