This article reports on a case study involving a collaboration project in which mothers with children attending Inosel school received capacity building based on design development activities. The school is a catholic charity school based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which admits both deaf and hearing students. As many of the children need the help of their parents/guardians to get around the city, their caregivers stay at the Inosel premises during school hours. Having identified this work opportunity, the following research question was formulated: Can collaboration activities based on the opportunity to develop design projects help empower people to act productively in the development of a project, making and marketing artisan objects? The idea was to draw on methods and procedures from the methodology of design to train groups with creative potential. A methodological approach was devised, enabling the group to work on the different stages of design development and, as a consequence empowering them.

Authors: Bárbara de Oliveira e Cruz, Rita Maria de Souza Couto, Roberta Portas Gonçalves Rodrigues