Behind the Scenes: Design to Better [Our Community] + NPower St. Louis
We’ve just passed the halfway point in our Design to Better [Our Community] program in partnership with NPower St. Louis. Over the last six weeks, participants have learned about Equity-Centered Community Design, discussed the meaning of terms such as “diversity,” “inclusion,” “equality,” and “equity,” and identified problems in their communities and areas in which they’d like to see change. They left the classroom and surveyed community members on campus, and they mapped the connections between issues, noting how issues and areas of inequity relate to and feed into one another.
Last week, we began shifting from identifying problems to designing approaches. Each of our two sections chose a single issue to work with, and narrowed it down to a mission statement about what change they want to make. They made empathy maps and drew from their own experiences to identify what they wished had existed for them and what they can bring into existence for the future. One group decided to address economic growth and education disparity, and hopes to encourage youth to explore and pursue their interests and capabilities. The other wants to fight disempowerment by giving youth a voice politically and in their communities.
Next, it was time to ideate and prototype. We brainstormed approaches; no idea was a bad idea, but so many ideas were good ones. After coming up with as many ideas as possible, participants chose the ones they thought were most viable, impactful, or interesting to work on. They worked together in small groups to develop the ideas they’d chosen into prototypes, beginning to flesh out program specifics, logistics, business models, and how to measure success. Vague ideas began to transform into practical, viable actions.
It’s still early on in the design process; we have weeks left to fully develop these prototypes. Still, what our participants have come up with already has been inspiring, ranging from political organizations to educational programs and even some deeply moving poetry. We’re so excited to see how much they can do with these ideas over the second half of their program.
A major thank you to our program partner: NPower St. Louis. Additionally, we would like to thank our Design to Better [Our Community] sponsors: 4.0 Schools, Arts and Education Council, Wells Fargo, and Deaconess Foundation.
Interested in our work? Follow us at www.creativereactionlab.com, join our social media, or contact us regarding us working together at http://www.creativereactionlab.com/contact/.
