Hello world! My name’s Josh. I use they/them pronouns (Want to learn more about pronouns? Click here). I am passionate about community development, equitable city building, and designing sustainable and thriving futures for all using art and design. I’m a queer and nonbinary designer, facilitator, and equity-centered community development practitioner who cares about other humans. For me, that means taking action.

I just launched a new podcast!

〰️ Check out Queer For Cities 〰️

I just launched a new podcast! 〰️ Check out Queer For Cities 〰️

I’m all about cultivating community and working alongside people most impacted by social issues to develop solutions to those challenges. My work is rooted in using design thinking and equity-centered community design to dismantle oppressive systems and structures that hold barriers in place that prevent people from achieving personal fulfillment, self-defined success, and positive health outcomes in sustainable and thriving communities.

I founded Action! by Design to help communities achieve equity, justice, and joy through art and design. I cofounded Love Your Labels to support queer and trans youth and tell them they matter. I make music and art because I believe these are universal languages that catalyze change.

I care about equity in education. I care about dismantling racist systems and destroying the white supremacist agenda. I care about ending sexual violence against and exploitation of women+. I believe technology is an opportunity to elevate access for people, but it can also be a mechanism for upholding inequity and causing harm. Safe and accessible housing, quality food, reliable and efficient transportation, high-quality education (including early ed and care!), and the Internet; these are human rights.

My vision is an equitable, just, and joyful world full of sustainable, thriving community ecosystems with fractal functionality (meaning they work at any scale; neighborhood, city, state, region, country, continent, world, solar system, galaxy, etc.)

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With my work at Action! by Design, I help organizations address complex challenges like youth accessing technology to support education and reimagining a transformative youth justice system. My background in user experience design (UX), facilitation, and community engagement led me to create a model for Community Design Sprints that are focused on identifying challenges and creating actionable solutions through rapid prototyping.

Are you working to solve a challenge I could help with?

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Press

News

New Worcester Catholic school diocese policy outlines pronoun, gender rules

"For Catholics that are proud to stand in a faith that represents love and community as the priority, I think people should be offended that the bishop is enacting policies that are antithetical to that message," said Josh Croke, with the group Love Your Labels in Massachusetts.

Students must use names, pronouns assigned at birth under new Worcester Catholic schools policy

Leaders of Worcester’s LGBTQ+ community have begun to organize against the new policy, said Joshua Croke, president of the Worcester nonprofit Love Your Labels, which supports LGBTQ+ youth.

Key Schools In Worcester Diocese Decline New Gender, LGBTQ+ Policies

McManus’ new policies may directly harm young people in Catholic schools, said Joshua Croke, president of the Worcester LGBTQ+ youth nonprofit Love Your Labels.

A post-pandemic LGBTQ+ ‘renaissance’ in Worcester, driven by young people

“We celebrate all bodies, all identities, every experience that has brought every individual into the place in which you are now. We welcome you, we celebrate you — you are beautiful,” Croke, 33, told the crowd. “This is what community looks like and how community is supposed to show up for each other.”

2023 Power 50: Joshua Croke, Worcester Business Journal

Croke is the influential voice for the LGBTQ+ community across the Central Massachusetts region. As president of Love Your Labels, they lead the Queer Coalition of Greater Worcester and run programming across the area, including Drag Queen Story Time.

Queer AF fashion show to celebrate Worcester’s LGBTQ+ community with designs and performances by local artists (MassLive)

“It’s a powerful celebration of community,” Croke said. “The folks that attend and participate are really finding community and building their relationships, which is so empowering and joyful and which is something that we need in days that can be pretty bleak sometimes with all the hate out in the world.”

LIFT calls for support from partners who said they would step forward when Billy Riley investigation concluded

The statement, credited to Courtney Ross Escobar and Joshua Croke on behalf of the Board of Directors, comes after the group issued an initial statement on July 15, 2022.

Angry, saddened and disturbed’: Living in Freedom Together (LIFT) calls Worcester Diocese’s report on Billy Riley investigation an offense to survivors (MassLive)

Speaking on behalf of Living in Freedom Together (LIFT)’s Board of Directors, Courtney Ross Escobar and Joshua Croke said they are “angry, saddened and disturbed by the heavily redacted Investigation Report: St. John’s Food For The Poor Program And Harrington House that was released yesterday.”

A Worcester School Committee Candidate's Views On Sex Ed Have Rocked The Local Election

At the press conference, which was held exactly a week before the election, the Queer Coalition’s Joshua Croke said Soucy neither cares for the LGBTQ community or about their humanity.

A Worcester School Committee Candidate's Views On Sex Ed Have Rocked The Local Election (GBH)

“The LGBTQ+ community includes students, parents and teachers in the Worcester Public School system, all of whom deserve the respect and support of school officials and access to information that is inclusive of their health and well-being,” Croke said.