The projects below were developed in design studios and labs at Parsons The New School of Design - NY. Each one addresses a different social challenge and were developed in interdisciplinary teams in partnership with NYC based organizations.
Building Learning Communities
“What if education was about co-learning - a process in which students and teachers take charge of building a caring and inclusive environment?”
HIGHER EDUCATION - MATERIAL THINKING - LEARNING COMMUNITIES - CO-PRODUCTION - ALTERNATIVE ECONOMY
Location: New York- USA
Role: design researcher, interviewer, facilitator, product designer
Team: Tamar Roemer, Ricardo Dutra, Letícia Ferreira
This project is part of The New School first University Transdisciplinary Graduate Lab - Civic Innovation: Strategies and Practices for Transformative Change in partnership with TimeBanks USA
Context Edgar Cahn - professor at the University of the District of Columbia, founder of Timebanks and partner for this project - uses the term monoculture to represent the current socio-economic system that relies majorly on financial value exchanges. In this project, we brought Edgar’s concept of co-production - a socially just economy of exchange - into higher education. We believe that the educational environment is a space where students can grow their civic responsibility by developing a changemaker character.
Methods Through interviews and participant observation, the group identified that principles such as mutual support, respect and inclusion are often put aside once competition and traditional methods of assessment - e.g. grading - are prioritized over a collaboratory and cooperative learning.
For the development of this project the group decided to look at the near future to imagine a scenario of learning communities. In these communities no one teaches another, but they teach each other (Freire, 1974) - mediated by a constellation of relationships between people and objects. In our design research process we developed reflective tools that materialize critical thinking and the emotional needs one experience in higher education.
Outcomes Believing that co-production combined with material thinking and critical pedagogy are at the core of a transformative change in education, in this model students experience values that are fundamental for building a more just society. As a result they carry them to the civic community after graduation.
Throughout eight weeks the prototypes were iterated within the classroom environment
Designing Financial Empowerment
““How can we improve client retention rates at the New York City’s Financial Empowerment Center by looking at the identity of places and spaces that provide those services?””
FINANCIAL EMPOWERMENT - PLACE ATTRIBUTES - COMMUNITY ASSETS - FINANCIAL EDUCATION
Location: New York - US Role: design researcher, ethnographerTeam: Tamar Roemer, Isabella Brandalise, Andrea Burgueno, Cameron Hanson
This project is part of the Transdisciplinary Design intensive course which brings students and external partners - such as the NYC Department of Consumers Affairs Office of Financial Empowerment and Foossa Strategy and Design Consultancy - to explore new approaches that improve client retention rates in the Financial Empowerment Centers.
Context In 2008, Financial Empowerment Centers (FEC) were created in NYC to offer free, professional, one-on-one financial counseling services to help people in crisis to stabilize their finances and plan for their future. Administered by DCA OFE and in partnership with local non-profits the Centers provide tools and information for New Yorkers to work on goals like tackling debt, improving credit, creating a budget, opening a bank account, and start saving. Since their launch, FECs have provided services to more than 35,000 New Yorkers in more than 25 sites citywide. However, despite this success, sustained client engagement is one of the greatest challenges and opportunities for dramatically improving the financial stability of clients.
Methods In a three-day workshop the group focused on exploring how acknowledged neighborhood institutions like bodegas, community banks, laundromat, and community centers - work as hubs that connect neighbors to the feeling of community and identity even in a big city like New York. If those places are able to nurture bonds between people, how could we use its essence to make the financial empowerments centers grow into neighborhood institutions as well?
We visited two FEC in Brooklyn, one was located in a community banks and another in an economic solutions center. Through participant observation, informal interviews and guided site visits we were able to identify challenges that the lack of brand and program identity expose. The group observed that the spaces focused on community services, and with staff embed in the neighborhood life, were more approachable and recognized by the community as an approachable resource.
Back to the design studio, a brainstorm session was held and the group explored the possibilities for an ideal complex system where financial literacy is shared as common knowledge in comfortable places.
Outcomes The group came up with a scenario for a Financial Empowered Community System where a series of places and events engage the population to educate each other by sharing knowledge and experiences of financial crisis or success.
Nickelville has programs, trainings, centers and resources that support, create and increase financial literacy by using recognized neighborhood institutions as touch points for financial education. As people find in familiar and comfortable places a space to talk about their challenges with finances, the barrier to seek support lowers down. As a consequence FEC become more accessible.
Nickelvillers User Journey
Scales of implementation. 1. Brand identity for all FEC 2. Counselors mobility 3. Community centers events 4. Story telling/training events 5. Mentorship program 6. Local business ambassadors 7. Financial truck
Harlem Youth Forum
“How do we connect organizations in Harlem working around youth challenges? How can we promote collaboration envisioning an unified and better future for Harlem youth?”
CONNECTING COMMUNITIES - SHARING BEST PRACTICES - YOUTH - GRASSROOT ORGANIZATIONS
Location: New York - US Role: design researcher, ethnographer, interviewer, facilitatorTeam: Tamar Roemer, Alix Gerber, Laura Dusi, Sam Haddix, Gertrud Høgh Rasmussen and Katie Edmonds
This project is part of the Social Lab: Harlem Collaboration Project a studio design class taught in the Transdiciplinary Design MFA program at Parsons School of Design. Partners include Reos Partners and No Longer Empty
Context Sugar Hill is a historic district in the northern part of the Hamilton Heights section of Harlem in the New York City borough of Manhattan where wealthy African American families once thrived during the Harlem Renaissance. In recent times the demographic of the neighborhood has shifted considerably, as the social implications of gentrification impact housing affordability and the displacement of lower income residents.
Methods Through a variety of interactions with the Harlem community and grassroots organizations we created knowledge that supported the design of a framework that helps Harlem’s actors navigate through their problems and opportunities. Using our expertise in strategic design, anthropology, and social media we were able to facilitate connections, exposing opportunities for cooperation.
Outcomes Harlem Youth Forum is a platform that promotes collaborations between organizations. By acknowledging practices of the players the platform shows how it’s possible to coordinate efforts that maximize work by creating a complete system in favor of each and every youth. By doing that, organizations are more likely to succeed once they can expand their resources by networking and partnering with other agents in Harlem.
Workshop Series: Small, themed and carefully facilitated helped participants to navigate through their capacities and limitations. Then they mapped their networks to find opportunities to cooperate with the present organizations for mutual benefit.
Website: Provided a platform for planning new workshops, from proposing themes and finding a location to downloading worksheets and materials. After the workshops the website supported coordination on projects or initiatives and resource exchange.
