Our Work
We think rigorously. We build strategically. We activate together.
KiraKira Institute works across three interconnected modes — research and strategy, leadership development, and public programming. Each feeds the others. Together, they form a complete ecosystem for people and planet-focused change.
HOW WE OPERATE
Think. Build. Activate.
These aren't departments. They're movements of energy through the same ecosystem. Research informs programs. Programs generate new research. Fellows carry both forward. And the community is always at the center.
Think.
Research and Strategy
We produce original knowledge — rooted in lived experience, participatory methods, and systems thinking. Our research doesn't sit on shelves. It gets built into tools, strategies, and programs that communities can actually use.
We believe knowledge co-created with communities is more rigorous, not less. Lived experience is not an anecdote. It is data.
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The Environmental Justice Imagination and Gaming Lab is KiraKira Institute's flagship research initiative — exploring how game-based design and speculative storytelling can surface community knowledge around environmental justice issues.
Games are not just entertainment. They are systems. They model cause and effect, reveal hidden structures, and create safe spaces to practice futures that don't exist yet. The Lab uses this insight to produce research, tools, and participatory experiences that make environmental justice knowledge more accessible, more engaging, and more actionable.
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Stay tuned for more!
Think.
Environmental Justice Imagination and Gaming Lab
The Environmental Justice Imagination and Gaming Lab is KiraKira Institute's flagship research initiative — exploring how game-based design and speculative storytelling can surface community knowledge around environmental justice issues.
Games are not just entertainment. They are systems. They model cause and effect, reveal hidden structures, and create safe spaces to practice futures that don't exist yet. The Lab uses this insight to produce research, tools, and participatory experiences that make environmental justice knowledge more accessible, more engaging, and more actionable.
Environmental health, climate resilience, and community-based systems mapping.
Current focus areas
Build.
Fellowship and Leadership Development
The people who will change the world are already here. They need infrastructure, mentorship, and community — not permission.
KiraKira Institute's Build programs develop the next generation of researchers, organizers, designers, and strategists working at the intersection of people and planet-focused change.
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The KiraKira Fellowship is a leadership development program for emerging researchers, organizers, and designers committed to community-centered systems change.
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A growing community of researchers, organizers, designers, and strategists building toward people and planet-centered change.
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The Associates Program is for people who want to be part of the KiraKira community without a full fellowship commitment — collaborators, contributors, and community members who bring their skills, perspectives, and networks into our ecosystem.
Build.
KiraKira Fellowship
The KiraKira Fellowship is a leadership development program for emerging researchers, organizers, and designers committed to community-centered systems change.
Fellows work on real projects. They produce real research. They build real relationships across sectors and disciplines. And they become part of a growing directory of practitioners whose work KiraKira Institute is proud to amplify.
Lead or contribute to active KiraKira research and programmatic initiatives
Produce original work
Research, tools, stories, strategies
Join a cross-disciplinary community of practice
Receive mentorship, support, and a platform for their work
What Fellows Do
Build.
Associates Program
The Associates Program is for people who want to be part of the KiraKira community without a full fellowship commitment — collaborators, contributors, and community members who bring their skills, perspectives, and networks into our ecosystem.
Associates participate in KiraKira events, contribute to projects, and connect with a broader network of people working toward the same goals.
No expertise required. Curiosity is enough to begin.