The Hero Lab

The Hero Lab is a non-profit organization that teaches collaborative, community design to at-risk youth in Mumbai and Baltimore. Our goal is to build voice, agency, and resilience in youth from adverse backgrounds using the design thinking process. Our work, which marries best practices in participatory design and positive psychology, builds grit, character strengths, resilience, mindfulness and a strong sense of purpose in youth between the ages of five and 20. Our mission? To nurture local, design-driven heroes who realize their self-worth and potential and can contribute to more active, healthy, and resilient schools and communities. Our kids have designed and launched dozens of human-centered impact projects, from a trash collection cooperative that eliminated 1500 pounds of trash from a Mumbai slum to community-led preventive and health centers and original hip-hop albums on gun-violence. Presently, we are working in four slums in Mumbai- ranging from small migratory communities on the footpath in Worli to major communities with infrastructure like Dharavi- and seven inner-city public schools in Baltimore.