Reaching People in Red Hook: An Exploratory Process in its Infancy Stages
How I learned how to design prototypes with specific people in mind
I began this process not knowing how I, a lone journalism student, could possibly be of any help to parents in Brooklyn’s District 15 — the community which I had chosen to serve. My task was to create a startup business and design a useful prototype designed to solve some sort of problem people in my community were facing. Simple.
Without knowing anything more than what I had researched online about District 15, I started showing up to Community Education Council meetings and other public education-related events to learn more about how the diversity plan in District 15 was playing out and the conversations that surrounded it. I looked for opportunities for growth, hoping that someone, somewhere in this community would need a chatbot, story-circle, YouTube series, or any of the other thousand journalism prototype possibilities I had read about in class. Mainly, I was searching for some sort of information gap that I could fill.
The Problem
I quickly learned that Red Hook parents were feeling disconnected from conversations happening in their district and were seeking more ways to get involved. I first noticed this disconnect when a Department of Education (DOE) representative asked a packed auditorium of parents in Carroll Gardens to identify what neighborhood they were from by raising their hands. Only a handful of Red Hook parents raised their hands and I scribbled something in my notebook akin to “why no red hook parents?” This meeting was special because members of the DOE were present to get parent feedback on a proposal they’d come up with to rezone elementary schools. One of the goals of the rezoning plan was to diversify District 15, where the schools are starkly segregated in terms of race and income. You can read more about the original diversity plan here. Later, when the parents broke up into small groups to discuss their issues with the prosed rezoning plan, I heard some people bring up the lack of Red Hook representation.
“I don’t feel like we have the resources that help engage our own communities, and really make sure everybody’s got a voice. I’m skeptical that we’ll have success on the integration without more tools.” -Lincoln Ritter, parent in Brooklyn.
Lincoln said this after a heated discussion with another white parent about why they need to talk frankly about how to integrate their district, even if it wasn’t going to all be solved in one rezoning plan. Lincoln was beating around the bush to say: the conversation on the table was diversity, yet the room was mostly white.
Aside from the lack of representation of communities of color, it appeared to me that the way the DOE was collecting feedback from parents was ineffective and gave way to groupthink, a phenomenon where the most outspoken person in the group persuades the decisions of the rest. Much like a chaotic Kindergarten classroom, the loudest parents in the group were able to have their opinions heard over those who remained quiet.
(In addition to showing up to in-person events, I also kept in touch with the online conversation about District 15 by following relevant Twitter and Facebook pages. I set up an alert to my phone whenever the account @CECD15 Tweeted anything at all. I read the Diversity Plan in its entirety to familiarize myself with the processes the DOE uses to conduct outreach to neighborhoods like Red Hook to get insight.)
Birthing a Prototype
My initial idea was to create a platform (either a chat forum, app, or channel) that would connect parents in District 15 who wouldn’t normally be in the same room together to facilitate conversations about the diversity plan and other DOE equity initiatives in a way that brings new voices into the conversation. If this sounds vague, it’s because this idea was conceived early on, before I started connecting exclusively with Red Hook residents.
Next, I consulted three different groups for feedback: professors to guide on the feasibility of this project, a reporter who was familiar with the community, and a community activist who lives in Red Hook. The general feedback I received was that this idea was a bit ambitious, and that I should first work on reaching members of the community who felt disconnected to gain more insight on the root of the problem.
A few weeks later, at a Saturday afternoon at the Red Hook Public Library where The CITY was hosting their Open Newsroom Project, my project took a sharp left turn. On a day where the room’s discussion focused solely on education, I found out many residents who were there not only had concerns to express, but also many questions about what was going on with the current rezoning plan. Clearly, there was a lot of confusion about what the DOE was proposing, who it would affect, along with frustration in the lack of effort to reach out to marginalized neighborhoods to weigh-in on the plan. After listening and talking with people in this space, I began to reach out to stakeholders in the Red Hook community to find out more about the problem and hold off on any proposed solutions until I had a better understand of Red Hook’s specific needs. At this point my community narrowed to parents in District 15 to families in Red Hook who wanted to be more involved with education in their district, but needed help getting there.
The more I spoke with people who were affected by the issue, the more I was able to refining my initial prototype idea. After showing up to a special Community Education Council meeting in Red Hook, I realized that before connecting families in Red Hook to other families in District 15, I needed to help them get more involved in the education conversation. Creating a space for conversation was something that could happen in the future, after I provided the community with something they could really use.
“When we’re talking about the idea of engagement in communities of color, there has to be far more intentionality of collaboration…an email and a flyer doesn’t cut it. When information is being dispersed, there just has to be more strategy and more on the ground engagement.” — Edwin Pacheco, pastor at Red Hook Redemption Church
The Pitch
After narrowing the problem even further, I designed a prototype that would answer these main questions:
- How can I inform parents in Red Hook about meetings and information regarding changes to their school district?
- How can I share stories about public schools in Red Hook in a way that combats the existing negative stereotypes?
- How can I encourage more Red Hook community involvement in educational issues?
I then came up with RedConnect: an all-in-one virtual platform that aims to bring awareness to educational issues that affect Red Hook residents while encouraging involvement in local education-focused groups. The platform also aims to humanize people some of the problems residents are facing with their own public schools. The platform is designed for Red Hook families, but the spotlight story series will be shared with everyone on social media.
RedConnect was designed to complement bimonthly Community Education Council meetings — where many parents get their current D15 information. Though it’s a bit different because it’s virtual, accessible at any moment, and tailored to the needs of Red Hook residents.
Road Blocks and Triumphs
Of course, my initial prototype raised some challenges:
- The Red Hook Community relies heavily on in-person interactions with trusted members of the community, and the whole project lives online.
- Many people in the community are already going to virtual spaces to get information. What would make them come to mine?
The first question is being solved currently in a new branch of the project called: “Heroes of PS 676.”
Designed after this community heroes project in Fort Greene by Jasmin Chang and Zac Martin, the Heroes of PS 676 will be a series of stories about people that go above and beyond for PS 676, or the Red Hook Neighborhood School. The stories will highlight the work, dedication, and character of the nominated heroes, and will be shared virtually through the RedConnect site, and in person by posting physical copies of the portraits/stories all around PS 676 and other areas of the neighborhood.
The answer to the second question came as soon as I began looking for ways to market the project. I connected with a community leader, from the Red Hook Initiative, and asked if she would help promote the first livestream. She not only agreed to promote the livestream on her organization’s social media, but agreed to host them on on Red Hook Hub website, a space where the community shares information. She also connected me with the RHI social media manager, who will help me promote the project in the future.
One weakness of the product is the design is not user friendly, or terribly easy to update information. I’m thinking of just switching the website to a single landing page, where people will be redirected to other community sites where the project will be hosted. For example, they’ll click out to see the livestream videos on The Red Hook Hub’s site, and also will be redirected to an Instagram page where the Heroes of PS 676 series will live. One strength in the product is the livestreams themselves, because they are videos that provide access and information about the meetings that many parents in Red Hook are not attending. These videos can be used as a jumping off point for a more in-depth educational platform.
Looking Ahead
Next I plan on meeting more with the CEC to discuss ways they can restructure their meetings to be more inclusive to outside neighborhoods and more conducive to having productive discussions that will bring the community together rather than divide them on issues. I still want to moderate conversations and bring people in district 15 together, but serving the community first before I ask them to come to my events is vital to building trust within this community.
To gain more traction for this product, I need to partner with more schools in Red Hook to gain more users and parent insights on what other information they’re in search of.
From conception to prototype, I’ve come very far in this process. In the beginning I had zero connections and a shaky vision inspired by a problem I felt passionate about. Now, I am not only connecting with community members to promote the project, but am in touch with the editor of a national education news outlet who is interested in the project and eventually wants to do a story on my work. The more attention this project gets, the easier it will be to find ways to sustain it.
