Build with Humanity: Impact Hub Accelerator Mid-Point Updates

The past few weeks in the accelerator have been pretty busy and productive, particularly when it comes to clarifying how we aim support equity in urban communities. Below is a revised summary that describes and clarifies what we aim to do and why.

“aerial view of city at daytime” by Jordan on Unsplash

The Need: Facing Inequality within our Cities

Today, 55% of the world’s population lives in urban areas, a proportion that is expected to increase to 68% by 2050. Urbanization, which is defined as the gradual shift in residence of the human population from rural to urban areas, combined with the overall growth of the world’s population could add another 2.5 billion people to urban areas by 2050. Inequality is rising, particularly in urban centers around the world, and cities face inequities 2.5 times higher than suburban and rural areas.

In the United States, historically racist urban development policies that segregated neighborhoods promoted lingering effects that still exist today. Racial discrimination in mortgage lending in the 1930s shaped the demographic and wealth patterns of American communities today, a new study shows, with 3 out of 4 neighborhoods “redlined” on government maps 80 years ago continuing to struggle economically. A study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, shows that the most of the neighborhoods marked “hazardous” in red ink on maps drawn by the federal Home Owners’ Loan Corp. from 1935 to 1939 are today much more likely than other areas to comprise lower-income, minority residents. This hazardous designation primarily affected and continue to effect inner city low-income communities in the following ways:

1. Wealth accumulation and financial inclusion: The median net worth of whites remains nearly 10 times the size of blacks’. Nearly 1 in 5 black families have zero or negative net worth — twice the rate of white families. The Latinx and Native American community also suffers from similar disparities Home ownership is the single greatest contributor to wealth building and inter-generational wealth exchange. A significant portion of this gap come from exclusionary housing policies implemented during the middle part of the 20th Century.
2. Education: Since most public schools are funded by local taxes, lower income communities tend to have communities that are under-resourced and underfunded. These schools tend to produce poorer educational outcomes for their students.
3. Health: Disinvestment in segregated neighborhoods causes communities of color to have less access to resources and services than white communities, contributing to poor health status. Concentrated poverty, poor quality of neighborhoods (housing quality or the built environment for example), and greater economic instability are only a few factors that influence health.
4. Social Justice: increases in policing in these areas increase the likelihood that many minorities are persecuted for a crime and incarcerated. According to a pew research report conducted in 2010, more than one-third (37 percent) of black male dropouts between the ages of 20 and 34 were incarcerated. Incarceration significantly impacts economic mobility, reinforcing cycles of inequity and poverty.

The systemic forces in these key areas, are reinforcing and continue to support social inequity among several communities in Austin. Our challenge is this: How might we address urban inequity through system oriented innovation and community empowerment?

Our Vision

Our vision is to create a community of equity minded innovators that can design and lead community-integrated approaches solutions to urban inequity.

Our Solution

Build with Humanity educates young adults with the skills needed for success in the future workforce while empowering them to solve problems of inequity in their community. We primarily seek to support work within and across 5 key areas: health, education, affordability, financial inclusion, and social justice. As mentioned previously, these areas of emphasis were chosen because they were the 5 primary areas of inequity with the highest disparities for vulnerable and underserved populations.

Our Unique Approach

We believe that inequitable systems are a product of biased design. We also believe that redesigning systemic inequities require a systemic approach. We aim to execute on our mission by:

1. Education in Equity Centered Design and Innovation: Students will be provided instruction in core elements of innovation. Product development and design, service design, lean business model generation, and strategy. Each core element of the curriculum will be taught through the lens of equity and community impact. According to the World Economic Forum the top 3 skills needed to prepare for the 4th industrial revolution are 1) complex problem solving 2.) critical thinking, and 3) creativity. We aim to equip students with high value skills that are relevant to the emerging economy.
2. Learning through Action and Impact: Each course will promote a “learn by doing approach” to community issues. We aim to work with local organizations and governments to curate design challenges related to alleviating disparities among undeserved communities and have students develop solutions to these challenges throughout the duration of the course. For example: Curating a project with the Austin Independent School District that would allow our students to design a sustainable service model for a program that can increase cultural competency and reduce cultural bias among teachers.

Proposed Courses and Programs

6–8 Week Course: During this flexible evening course community members can learn the basics of product and service development, human centered design, and business strategy and apply their knowledge to real issue being faced in the community.

1 Year Program: We aim to partner with the Austin Center for Design to provide a scholarship to qualified community leaders to go through AC4D’s 1 year program in Interaction Design and Social Entrepreneurship. Scholarships and supplementary support will be provided to community members and leaders with a demonstrated commitment to increasing equity within undeserved communities in Austin.

Our Business Model

We aim to generate revenue through tuition and are currently exploring alternate revenue streams such as charging project sponsors for our student’s work on a particular issue. We also aim to generate educational content that can sold and licensed, independently. Our business model is inclusive of anyone that wants to participate, however we seek to support participation of traditionally excluded groups through tuition subsidies or scholarships.

Our Goals and Milestones by December

1. (10) user interviews with profits and organizations within our areas of impact
2. (10) interviews with relevant community members / potential students
3. (40) SWOT analysis on the impact and business models of 40 similar organizations
4. Have completed course deliverables, student outcomes, and curriculum
5. (1) Pilot of the program in collaboration with a local non-profit or institution

Asks

1. Interviews with key members of local organizations that have an equity oriented mission. If you are a interested please reach out to me at bveal06@gmail.com
2. Team Building and Recruitment: If you are a professional designer, product manger, entrepreneur, or business strategist interested in being a mentor or instructor for the Build with Humanity please contact me..
3. If you are an Austin resident and you would like to know more or if you would be interested in enrolling in the equity centered design course please fill out the interest form here.
4. Seed Funding: If you are a traditional investor, foundation, or angel investor interested in increasing equity in Austin, please reach out. We are looking to build relationships in order to understand how we could potentially increase the impact of the non-profits in your portfolio.