design public practice +
gws research methods
Walk to End Homelessness project two // a collaboration with the New London Homeless Hospitality Center
Table of Contents 4 6 8 10 20 26 34 40 41
Introduction Team Members NLHHC Overview Research & Process Lessons Learned Stations Print Material Acknowledgements Colophon
4 Introduction
Introduction
For the past nine years, The New London
Homeless Hospitality Center (NLHHC) has organized the Annual Walk to End Homelessness. Connecticut College has a longstanding tradition of collaboration with this Walk, traditionally through The Holleran Center for Public Policy in Community Action, or PICA, which has helped facilitate the event. This semester marked the first participation of two additional courses in this collaboration: Feminist Social Research Methods and Design: Public Practice classes came together to help NLHHC and PICA create a more educational and interactive experience for participants. Feminist Social Research Methods is an upper-level Gender and Women’s Studies course at Connecticut College that examines how research can uncover, document, synthesize and become part of the pursuit of social change. Design: Public Practice is an upper-level studio art course at Connecticut College that explores methods and processes of public-based design, with the goal of promoting social change through design.
The Annual Walk to End Homelessness helps support the New London Homeless Hospitality Center, an organization that provides overnight housing and daytime services such as showers, laundry, and a mailroom. The NLHHC also helps guests find permanent housing solutions.The two goals of the Annual Walk are to raise money for the New London Homeless Hospitality Center as well as to combat the stigmas and misconceptions about homelessness in the local community. Part of this collaboration included creating three interactive stops along the route of the Walk through downtown New London. Design: Public Practice students designed these stops utilizing the research and content provided by the Feminist Social Research Methods students. Research Methods students conducted research concerning homelessness on a national level as well as on a local level in New London in order to provide Design students with context and content for the stops. This research included analyzing statistics from the Shelter Utilization Report and media analysis of public attitudes towards homelessness in outlets such as Facebook and the comment sections of online articles. Research students also conducted an hour long focus group with six current and former guests of the New London Homeless Hospitality Center in order to better understand the myriad issues faced by homeless individuals in New London.
Introduction 5
Each of the three stops aimed to engage and educate the hundreds of walkers that would participate. The first stop, Meet Our Neighbors, invited participants to walk through a parking lot chalked with quotations from guests of NLHHC. The second stop, Things Fall Apart, aimed to convey how homelessness is circumstantial and can happen to anyone by highlighting issues that can lead to loss of housing, such as a broken down car or illness. The third stop, Opening Our Doors, invited walkers to consider questions such as “How can you end homelessness?” written across a series of five doors. Participants were encouraged to share their thoughts by writing their answers on the doors in chalk. Research Goals 1. Know how other forces of identity and power such as race, sexuality, class, religion and nationality intersect and interact with gender 2. Utilize feminist methodologies and approaches in order to frame original research and organizing 3. Refine skills of information literacy and research, both library and web-based, and how to use digital technologies 4. Appreciate the power of individual and collective agency
Design Goals 1. Engage the college community, the New London community, and the New London Homeless Hospitality Center to develop collaborative projects 2. See and make interdisciplinary connections with form and content 3. Confront controversy and utilize local resources 4. Identify community’s strengths and design with the community’s voice
Design Team Lacey Hale Major: Psychology Minor: Art Class of 2017
Charlotte Hecht Major: American Studies Minor: Art Class of 2016 Museum Studies
Greg Montenegro Major: Art Class of 2018 Ammerman Center
Anna Peterson Major: Art & French Class of 2017
Mei Reffsin Major: Art Class of 2017 Goodwin-Niering Center for the Environment
Molli Udis Major: Art & EAS Class of 2017
Arianna Wendt Major: Architecture Class of 2017
Alana Wimer Major: Art, American Studies Class of 2018 Ammerman Center
Research Team & Faculty Maggie Donohue Major: Gender & Women’s Studies, Behavioral Neuroscience Class of 2016
Sophia Liebman Major: East Asian Studies Minor: Gender & Women’s Studies Class of 2016
Brynne MacDonnell Major: English Minor: Gender & Women’s Studies Class of 2018
Kori Rimany Major: English, Gender & Women’s Studies Minor: Mathematics Class of 2018
Hayley Smith Major: Film Studies Minor: Gender & Women’s Studies
Joey Mercado Major: Gender & Women’s Studies Class of 2016 Ammerman Center
Ariella Rotramel Vandana Shiva Assistant Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies
Andrea Wollensak Professor of Art Judith Ammerman ‘60 Director, Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology
New London Homesless Hospitality Center
“Walk to End Homelessness� The Annual Walk to End Homelessness helps support the New London Homeless Hospitality Center The two goals of the Annual Walk are to raise money for the New London Homeless Hospitality Center as well as to combat the stigmas and misconceptions about homelessness in the local community.
Overview 9
Overview
The New London Homeless Hospitality
Center provides a physical space of safety and shelter to southeastern Connecticut adults who find themselves facing homelessness. NLHHC was founded in 2006 after the unfortunate passing of a local homeless man named Bill Walsh one week after the city’s winter shelter was closed down due to a lack of city funding (“Mission Statement”). In the ten years since their opening, NLHHC has remained in operation through fundraising and donations. The Annual Walk to End Homelessness is the Center’s largest fundraising project, and this year (2016), the Walk raised $18,000 – the most money raised at the Walk to date (“Walk to End Homelessness raises $18,000”).
In addition to the funds raised, the Walk attracted a great deal of media attention and publicity, helping to address their goal of community awareness and involvement. NLHHC is one of two shelters in the city of New London and can hold up to forty people at a time.
Many shelters in the tri-state area close their doors at the early hours of the morning and reopen in the evening, displacing homeless individuals to the streets during the daytime. However, in keeping with NLHHC’s mission to provide a place of safety (“Mission Statement), the Center’s space closes for only one hour a day in order to ensure that guests have constant access to vital resources and a welcoming space. The funds raised during the Walk are crucial to providing transitiona l housing and transportation to guests and maintaining the overnight shelter and the daytime hospitality center.
10 Research & Process
Research and Design Framework
The Research Methods students used Mary
Hawkesworth’s Feminist Inquiry, Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber’s Feminist Research Practice, and many other supplementary texts as main sources of information for how to best practice feminist research. In Wanda S. Pillow and Cris Mayo’s “Feminist Ethnography/ Histories, Challenges, and Possibilities,” the Research Methods students learned about the importance of reciprocity within research (Pillow and Mayo 187-204). When looking to conduct research to better understand the Center’s guests, it was crucial for the researchers to then utilize the knowledge gained in a way that benefitted the community as a whole. Another concept that was key to the research was sustainability within advocacy. Tabitha Yong and Annie Wu’s article, “5 Things to Keep In Mind When Designing for Social Change” explains that, “Working toward solutions that empower your users to eventually sustain themselves without you”(Yong and Wu). This means going beyond quick fixes and instead working on design concepts that can enable greater social change over time. Making sure that the Walk produced enough money for the year was important, but equally important was creating materials and projects that could be reproduced and sustained to achieve the long term goal of reducing misconceptions about homelessness.
Research & Process 11
Another crucial component within feminist research practice is reflexivity. As Feminist Research Practice suggests, “reflexivity can be an important tool...that allows researchers to be aware of their status differences along gender, race, ethnicity, class, and any other factors that might be important to the research process.� (Nagy Hesse-Biber and Leavy 215). Individually, each of the students needed to assess their own privilege and their relation to the guests of the NLHHC and recognize that, as a group of Connecticut College students, we had the privilege of coming into the Center not as guests, but as volunteers. As such, it was vital that the research and final products centered around emphasizing and elevating the voices of the guests of the Center. These models of ethics were practiced in the Research Methods and Design students volunteering in the Center, thereby both assisting the Center and allowing the students to better understand, interact with, and get to know the local community.
14 Research & Process
Research and Design Methods
Feminist Social Research Methods students
collaborated with NLHHC in developing and expanding pre-existing research on homelessness in New London county. Students in Feminist Social Research Methods learned the importance of employing a mixed methods research approach to homelessness in New London, seeing as this issue intimately affects members of the New London community. Students combined qualitative data (quotations from the focus group and interviews) with quantitative data (survey data such as demographics of guests from the Shelter Utilization Report) in order to best represent the voices of those affected by homelessness. Students completed a media analysis of New London’s The Day newspaper, The New London Police Department website and Facebook page to better comprehend the local community’s attitudes and perceptions of homelessness. Along with a media analysis, students gathered statistics from NLHHC through the Center’s Shelter Utilization Report which is compiled through administering a comprehensive survey to all guests who rely on shelter services.
This information was combined with that of other governmental organizations and research to clarify who is most at risk for homelessness. Keeping the integrity and best interest of guests in mind, students aimed to apply their research in a manner that would both benefit the Walk as well as the guests of NLHHC for years to come. For instance, in addition to providing content to Design students that would lead to the production of materials for the Walk itself, Research Methods students also engaged federal, state, and local statutes in order to compile a list of rights as a homeless person in New London. Design students then took this list, which included statements such as “each homeless person in this state has the right to receive emergency medical care,” and produced an accessible and legible hard-copy document that would be available for guests at the front desk in the Center. After this background research, students in the methods course identified the focus group method as the most appropriate fit for developing a complex and nuanced understanding of homelessness in the greater New London community. Though focus groups look differently based on the researcher and their expressed goals, “at its most basic, it is a small group discussion focused on a particular topic and facilitated by a researcher” (Munday 233). As feminist researchers, conducting a focus group meant placing an emphasis on process over content, in order to realize how
Research & Process 15
participants were constructing their realities (Munday 237). Central to this process is the key aspect of interaction between individuals which allows for participants to negotiate and challenge essential concepts and characteristics , for example what it means to be homeless (Munday 238). In consultation with the Volunteer Coordinator (Paula), Communications and Development Manager (Barb) and other staff, two students from class developed the following questions to ask former and current homeless individuals living at the shelter:
1. How did you begin your experience at the center? What was the largest contributing factor to your homelessness? Do you consider your homelessness to be temporary? 2. How do you feel inside/outside the center? Aside from the center, are there spaces you feel comfortable in New London? Do you feel safe in the center? 3. Walk us through what your day to day experience is like? Are there any parts of your day that are particularly important or challenging to you?
In order to respect the confidentiality and privacy of guests, each and every member of the focus group was given a consent form that would keep their comments anonymous. Direct quotations from this process were utilized by applying pseudonyms to statements. It was necessary to convey the individual impact homelessness has on particular people while also respecting the privacy of the individual providing that information. The final presentation of this research was seen in the first and second stops, in which quotations were artfully presented to the public in a way that challenged the stigma around homelessness.
18 Research & Process
The Design Public Practice class looked at Process & Concept: many examples of public graphical works. Design Public Practice As a whole , we were interested in conveying messages provided by the New London Homeless Hospitality Center. We viewed our work as a means to inform the public about homelessness. Our preliminary research and concepts were inspired by public art works that incorporated messages into visual design. We were unsure at first whether a message or an image would be more powerful. In the end, we decided that visualizing a message was more powerful. The stations we designed throughout the homeless walk utilized this concept of using a message and engages the community in a way that encourages people to think about the issues presented.
Research & Process 19
20 Lessons
Lessons Learned: Throughout the process of The New London Homeless Hospitality Center project Design Public Practice the design team learned important lessons to effectively design for social change. The design students were informed about the issue of homelessness in the New London community by volunteering and learning more about NLHHC through the staff. Our challenge throughout this project was to design and fabricate stations for the Walk for the Homeless that would bring more awareness to the cause, and redesign a more user friendly brochure and handbook for the center. This course gave students the opportunity to work collaboratively as a design team and directly work with members of the New London community. Throughout the entirety of this project the design team followed the design thinking process. By using the design thinking process designers first identify the problem and then implement a solution, and always keeping in mind the demographic of the user and design so the user can also acquire ownership of the project. We learned lessons in both the design process and during the actual walk. The design students learned that a crucial component of the design process is to understand the user demographic. Each member of the design team fulfilled volunteer hours at the NLHHC to gain that understanding. We learned that many of the guests at the center speak Spanish. We wanted to accommodate their
Lessons
needs so we incorporated Spanish translations for all the stations and the map. We learned how to work with a tight budget and a limited time frame. We all worked collaboratively to finish making all the materials necessary for each stop. We also learned several lessons during the walk. Although the fabrication was completed, we found that some people didn’t always follow the signs, some people were less willing to engage than we may have previously thought, and to be realistic about expectations. One of our biggest lessons that we learned was how to collaborate with two other groups, the Feminist Social Research Methods class, PICA, and collaborate with the NLHHC. This collaboration was essential to carry out this project.
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22 Lessons
Lessons Learned: Feminist Research Methods Throughout the entirety of this project the
students in the Feminist Social Research Methods class learned a set of different important lessons. To begin, the students were introduced to the issue of homelessness in their surrounding community of New London. For most of the students in the class, this was the first time they had conducted in-depth research on a concept being lived by members of their wider community. The course provided students with a sense of the challenges and options for collecting research using feminist methodologies and approaches. Through the course content, students learned how to approach research using a feminist lens. The main goals of feminist research are to “support social justice and social transformation” while maintaining the “theoretical traditions that privilege women’s issues, voices, and lived experiences” (Hesse-Biber 3). For the students, taking a feminist approach means to recognize biases found in research, bring about valuable social change, and to acknowledge the position of the researcher in comparison to the research subjects.
While conducting their research the students learned the importance of understanding their own social location in connection to the topic of their study. As discussed above, acknowledgement of the position of the researcher is an essential guideline to conducting feminist research. As the students prepared for their volunteer hours in the shelter, it was important for them to acknowledge their own biases about the subject of homelessness. As students at Connecticut College, spending time in the shelter was a choice and a privilege, rather than a necessity, however students’ time spent with the guests of NLHHC helped to convey that homelessness is circumstantial and can happen to anyone. For instance, one young woman shared that she held a degree in molecular biology and found herself in the shelter because she needed to escape domestic violence. Volunteering in the shelter solidified students’ understanding of why they were doing the work they were doing; that is, students and guests formed connections that reinforced the fact that guests of the center are members of the greater New London community. Overall, the students agreed that the most important lesson learned throughout the course of this project was the importance of communication. Operating within a team that incorporated three different courses and the Center, the researchers needed open lines of communication and open minds.
Lessons 23
During the planning and research process all the classes had to be fully organized and set out strict deadlines in which to follow. A weekly meeting ensured that all of the classes were informed of the progress of their peers, a process that was essential for the success of the Walk. This communication was vital for the construction of the Walk and the ability for events to run smoothly in conjuction with the PICA and Design classes. Overall, the walk was an extremely valuable learning experience for everyone who was involved.
CENTER Why do you walk? Everyone has their own reasons for walking. The goal of this board is to create unity among all of the walkers, because although we all have different reasons for walking, we ultimately want to end homelessness.
Stations 27
DEVELOPMENT Our goal was to find a way to unify the walkers. Although everyone has their own personal reasons for walking, everyone has a simple mission: to end homlessless. We designed stickers and a grid by hand to place stickers to spell out “We Walk Today”
PROCESS We decided that we wanted something interactive that would put a meaning to why people were there walking. We thought “I walk because...” was a flexible statement that would capture an array of responses. We then brainstormed all different sorts of ways that we could bring the responses together. We then decided on the final phrase, “We Walk Today.’
FINAL PRODUCT Our final product was a large board with a grid saying which color sticker went in each block. Once all of the stickers were put on the board, the message read: ‘We Walk Today.’
STATION 1 Meet Our Neighbors This station was designed to give voice to our New London neighbors who have been helped or are in the process of receiving help from the New London Homeless Hospitality Center. We are trying to give them a voice by visually displaying their words in a public setting.
Stations 29
DEVELOPMENT This project was developed through the desire to express the voices of the New London homeless community. We wanted to find a way to visually display these voices and experimented with different ideas including using stencils, cut outs and chalk.
PROCESS We began brain storming how we could convey this message successfully. We decided we wanted to show homeless voices using words in carefully constructed and creative ways. The GWS class we teamed with conducted focus groups with members of NLHHC
FINAL PRODUCT Our final product was a large parking lot covered in colored chalk. We used foot prints to direct the walkers from quote to quote. We handed out chalk to any of the walkers who were interest-ed, this was a powerful way of representing all of the New London neighbors voices.
STATION 2 Things Fall Apart This station was intended to show people that homelessness isn’t caused by the Stereotypical reasons that many people believe. Boxes were labeled with many examples and represented how one’s life can fall apart so easily. It is meant to show a visual representation of how ones life can come tumbling down.
Stations 31
DEVELOPMENT As a team we started brainstorming about ways of showing a visual representaion of how ones life can fall apart. We had several ideas such as useing bubbles and poping stigmas. We soon realized we would have a hard time show a visual with bubbles. Going back to the drawing board the team came up with a new idea using boxes. We put messages on the sides stateing quotes we got from the guests at the homeless hospitality center.
PROCESS Inspired by the block game of jenga, we decided to visualize the station through an assortment of tumbling boxes with phrases that expressed reasons for homelessness. GWS helped provide translations and researched reasons for homelessness.
FINAL PRODUCT Our final product included three levels of boxes. The boxes were arranged in a 4x4 configuration and stacked. We offered participants in the walk to read the statements on the boxes and then push the boxes down. The station also offered bubbles to visualize popping stigma away.
STATION 3 Opening Our Doors This station bought the entire New London community together through the expression of personal reflection. The doors symbolize an entryway, a welcoming and it is also the New London Homeless Hospitality Center’s logo! We welcomed community members to answer the questions written on the doors as a way to initiate getting involved. Everyone can help support the ultimate goal of ending homelessness in New London.
Stations 33
DEVELOPMENT This project was done in many parts. First we had to find five doors, which ended up being gernerously donated to us. Our ideas developed as the doors came to life. We used cardboard and brown paper cut-outs to prototype this station. We ran many tests with the chalkboard paint and chalk as well.
PROCESS We were inspired by a project done in New York City. We brainstormed and came up with the idea of using doors instead of a real chalkboard. The GWS class we teamed with conducted focus groups with members of the homeless hospitality center.
FINAL PRODUCT Our final product was five doors, painted with black chalkboard paint. Each door had a question on the top in white paint, which prompted walkers to engage with colored chalk. This was a big project. Because we were dealing with five large doors, set-up for this station was difficult. Station three required help from everyone involved in the walk, whether it was painting, transporting or writing on them.
34 Print Material
Design Deliverables
The design class, in collaboration with the
Gender and Women’s Studies class, worked together to produce a multitude of print materials to suplement the walk. The print materials we designed included station posters for each of the stations included in the walk, a map detailing locations, and a large banner. Our class also worked to redesign the print materials provided by the New London Homeless Hospitality Center for it’s residents. Included in this work were an informational brochure, and a handbook.
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NLHHC Walk Banner
Print Material 35
36 Print Material
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Start: Homeless Hospitality Center 325 Huntington Street
A. St. James Episcopal Church Served as the homeless shelter until November of 2013. B. 19 Jay Street, The Former “Drop In� Day Shelter
Station 1: Meet Your Neighbors Parking Lot next to Covenant Shelter Station 2: Things Fall Apart Municipal lot across from Homeward Bound
A
C. Union Station
Station 3: Opening Our Doors Whale Tail
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Finish: Homeless Hospitality Center 325 Huntington Street
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D. The First Congregational Church Breakfast is served weekday mornings. E. The New London Public Library
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NLHHC Walk Two-sided Bilingual Map
Research 37
NLHHC Handbook for Center This handbook was designed to more effectively visualize the rules and resources offered by NLHHC for the guests
38 Print Material
NLHHC Brochure for Center The new design for the NLHHC brochure utilizes a clear and simple design while efficiently conveying important information for guests at the center.
Publicity 39
Publicity
40 Acknowledgements & Bibliography
Bibliography “Mission Statement.” New London Homeless Hospitality Center. Last modified in 2016. http://www.nlhhc.org/about/mission/ Pillow, Wanda S. and Cris Mayo. “Feminist Ethnography: Histories, Challenges, and Possibilities.” In Feminist Research Practice: A Primer, edited by Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber, 187-205. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2011. Munday, Jessie. “The Practice of Feminist Focus Groups.” In Feminist Research Practice: A Primer, edited by Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber, 233-263. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2013. “Walk to End Homelessness raises $18,000.” Connecticut College. Last modified on April 26, 2016. https://www.conncoll.edu/news/news-archive/2016/walk-to-end-homelessness/#.VyI7JyMrJO0 Yong, Tabitha and Annie Wu. “5 Things to Keep in Mind When Designing for Social Impact.” Medium. September 6, 2013. https://medium.com/@telogram/5-things-to-keep-in-mind-when-designing-for-social-impact-6dc 25b5ad794#.wz12sro5h.
Acknowledgements We would like to thank the staff, volunteers, and residents of the New London Homeless Hospitality Center for collaborating with us. We enjoyed working with the individuals involved and being offered the experience to meet new people and engage with the New London Community. We would also like to thank the Holleran Center, Barb Nagy, Paula Hardy, and all volunteers involved in the development of this project. An additional thanks is extended out to Professor Rotramel, and Professor Wollensak, for guiding and encouraging us to discover, and create. Lastly, we would like to express our gratitude to the Connecticut College Printshop for making every project a physical reality.
Colophon 41
Colophon Š 2016, All reserved by respective owners The New London Homeless Hospitality Center logo, and other marks are trademarks of New London Homeless Hospitality Center. Produced and printed in Spring 2016 for the Design: Public Practice class at Connecticut College 270 Mohegan Avenue New London, CT 06329 In collaboration with: NLHHC 731 State Pier Road New London, CT 06320 http://www.nlhhc.org/ Typeset in Calibre by Kris Sowersby