Sustainable Practices Process Book

Fostering a More Resilient Savannah A Continuum of DMGT 740 Initiatives to Create Tangible & Actionable Solutions to Complex Problems

CONTENTS

Project Brief Opportunity Landscape Emergent Savannah Methodology Double Diamond + SCRUM Secondary Research What is Resilience?

Course Books The Social Labs Revolution Design Impact: Metathemes Sustainist Design Guide Top Down 100 Resilient Cities Top 3 Case Studies Denver, Mexico City, New Orleans Tools/Matrix Bottom Up Open IDEO Other bottom-up initiatives ‘Affinitization’ of Secondary Research Tools/Matrix Findings Primary Research Community Events Government 101: We The People Monday Means Community Savannah Earth Day Festival Covered Dish - Citizen Advocacy Insights Interviews List of Questions + Stakeholders Transcribe + Identify signature quotes

Affinitization of Primary Research Tools/Matrix Derive Insights Articulate ‘How Might We’s’ Brainstorm concepts Generate priority list Articulate sacrificial concepts Presentation 2 | Thursday, May 4 Prototyping + Final Results Final Concept Design Execution Presentation 3 or Prototype Final Presentation/Event Appendix/Glossary Define terminology

PROJECT BRIEF

Project Brief + Our Goals Our goal is to act as a catalyst for a more equitable and resilient Savannah, working with and alongside Emergent Savannah. We will build on what already exists, and amplify the best of what is already underway. We will empower existing actors. We will strategically develop solutions with Wendell Berry’s maxim of solving for pattern forever on our minds, where effects of any action ripple positively through the connected systems of Savannah rather than creating negative repercussions.

With a clear understanding of our team’s resource limitations (being comprised mostly of individuals less familiar with Savannah who may leave soon after graduating), and respecting the fact that we will be working within a short time span along a longer continuum, we will develop tangible and actionable solutions that enable others to carry the work they already do forward, and do so on their own terms.

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E M E R G E N T S AVA N N A H

Emergent Savannah Our first meeting with Emergent Savannah took place on Friday, March 31st from 3-4pm at Sulfur Studios in the Starland District of Savannah. The meeting began with team introductions and a powerpoint presentation by Emergent Savannah explaining their mission, vision, history and past/current activities that they’ve planned or are engaged in. During the presentation they discussed the effect of Ben Carter on downtown and how citizens were left behind in the decision to redevelop Broughton St. Their vision and opinions were not taken into account during the planning process which left many people feeling disenfranchised and shut out of their own community.

“We believe apathy is a friend of the power structure and the enemy of democracy,” says Emergent. “We want to make civics sexy.”

Emergent Savannah does a lot of work in the community to bring together the ‘come here’s’, ‘from here’s’ and nobody hears. In other words, they try to connect people who have moved into the area, who have lived here their entire lives and who have systematically been ignored in an attempt to amplify their voices, and bring them together to work together.

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METHODOLOGY

Double Diamond Methodology

METHODOLOGY

Double Diamond + SCRUM This quarter our design process was structured using the double diamond framework for research and design.

Starting with the discovery phase, we began researching what we could about Savannah’s community through secondary and primary research. We collected pre-existing information from others, performed interviews, carried out observations, and used cultural probes.

We then regrouped and synthesized this data in what we called a scrum.

We were then able to define the design problem that we would address in this class. Halfway through the quarter, we reconvened with another scrum as we shifted to the second diamond and began to develop ideas for final concepts. From there, we gathered feedback from our stakeholders and scrummed again to improve our ideas. Finally we moved into the delivery phase with the planning and implementation of our concepts.

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Secondary Research W H AT I S R E S I L I E N C E ? - C O U R S E B O O K S - 1 0 0 R E S I L I E N T C I T I E S OPEN IDEO - MORE CASE STUDIES -

A F F I N I T I Z AT I O N - F I N D I N G S

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canvas.yale.edu/spotlight/urban-resilience

I N T R O TO S E CO N DA RY R E S E A R C H

What is Resilience?

Resilience is an essential property of any well-functioning system. Merriam Webster’s Dictionary defines resilience as “an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.” The Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities initiative defines urban resilience as “the capacity of individuals, communities, institutions, businesses, and systems within a city to survive, adapt, and grow no matter what kinds of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience.”

Citizens are at the heart of any society, and an active and informed citizenship is at the heart of any well-functioning democracy. Without informed and active citizens the resilience of open societies is compromised, and the health of those societies is at risk of faltering in the face of chronic or acute stresses.

The United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) place a substantial focus on urban resilience in SDG Number 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

There is no shortage of examples to engage and empower citizens in democratic societies. Emergent Savannah is an organization dedicated to the activation of the public realm with open, vibrant and tolerant dialogue among and between citizens of Savannah. Our goal during this class is to work with Emergent Savannah in pursuit of a resilient society with active and informed citizens as both the driving force and the outcome of that resilience.

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S E CO N DA RY R E S E A R C H

Design Impact: Metathemes When we began our journey with the Savannah community this quarter, one of the first resources we turned to was a report by Design Impact titled Metathemes: Designing for Equitable Social Change. Design Impact is a non-profit social innovation firm based in Cincinnati, OH that specializes in collaborative problem solving through a design lens. What this means is that Design Impact works with community leaders, government officials, and nonprofit organizations to address complex problems (such as hunger, homelessness, and access to healthcare) with the help of the design process. Design Impact’s mission statement is this: “We collaborate with passionate people, bring design and innovation practice to the table, and work together to design a better world.”

Metathemes: Designing for Equitable Social Change is a report that Design Impact compiled after recognizing recurring themes in their community work. The metathemes they present serve as a call to action for all those who are working to create equitable change, and they challenge community leaders to ask themselves “How does this metatheme show up in the work I do?” and “What changes can I make as a leader?” The six metathemes they present are as follows:

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COURSE BOOKS

Bridge Norms - “Value me for who I am, not who I’m told to be. Challenge me to grow.”

Go Beyond Feedback - “Move from community voice to community leadership.”

Feed my Soul - “Tap into my passion, tap into my power.” Redesign the System “Decrease system complexity to increase engagement and dignity.” Give Room to Heal - “Consider my whole self, including my trauma and history.” Keep Promises - “Show up every time. Deliver on your word.”

After reading through this report as a class, we asked ourselves “How might we incorporate these metathemes into our work with the Savannah community?” Initially, we used the metathemes as a way of analyzing our 100 Resilient Cities case study research (read more about that here). The metathemes emerged in all of the case studies we looked into, whether it be city-wide roundtable meetings (Bridge Norms) or zoning amendments to allow for community gardens (Feed my Soul).

first week of the quarter, which is as follows: “We are leveraging our collective skills to empower the people of Savannah to spark greater civic engagement and foster community resilience.” With this statement as our driving force, we generated over 100 ideas about the ways in which we could work with the Savannah community this quarter that would leave a lasting ripple effect after we are gone.

After selecting our best ideas, we returned to the metathemes to ask ourselves “which of these have we met through our solutions?”

For us, we felt that we focused on ‘Bridge Norms’, ‘Go Beyond Feedback’, ‘Feed my Soul’, and ‘Give Room to Heal’. Our final four solutions empower members of the community to express themselves creatively, to build relationships with their neighbors, to become more aware of the community they live in, and to inspire them to become more involved in their community in the future.

After a few weeks of further research and brainstorming, we then returned to the mission statement that we created during the

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S E CO N DA RY R E S E A R C H

The Social Lab Revolution “The Social Labs Revolution reports and builds on a decade of practical experiments in addressing social challenges that are complex in nature. Zaid Hassan, a co-founder of Reos Partners, makes the case that taking a planning-based approach risks almost certain failure. Instead he expounds on an experimental, prototyping based approach, social labs, that have proven more effective in addressing complex challenges.�

We use this book as a compass point to gain confidence in addressing social complex problems. Social labs are platforms that increase the odds of addressing situations systematically in their roots, and we aim to do it by focusing our efforts in building a Savannah community resilience.

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COURSE BOOKS

Sustainist Design Guide “Sustainism represents a shift not only in thinking and doing but also in the collective perception of how we live, do business, feed ourselves, build our communities and communicate as much as how we deal with nature.” Michiel Schwarz and Diana Krabbendam talk in this book about a resurgence of ‘the local’ connecting the systems of thinking and design to look at ‘confluence of globalism.’ The movement of design expressed in this book, from modernity to sustainity, focuses not only on mastering design as an ecological topic but also a social one.

The equation used to describe this interaction promotes sustainism as a lens, achieved by multiplying sustainable innovation times social design with the result being sustainist design.

From a how might we approach, a sustainist asks questions like how might we design for sharing, how might we design for localism, how might we design for consecutiveness and how might we design proportionally?

Breaking these into the criterion of sharing, localism, connectiveness, and proportionality implies new briefs, while thinking in systems, leads to the ultimate goal of environmental sustainability. A new culture of sharing is

emerging and it includes respect for our commons, collaboration between our communities and open exchange of information. The ‘local’ is experiencing a new revival and something that we as a population increasingly value. Experiencing locally in community, and rootedness is the definition of this criterion. Local is a value geographic marker. Connectedness is all about relationships and interdependence. The web is an invitation to connect and making quality, meaningful relationships is the skill that this criterion develops. Finally designers must question the modernist ideas of scale and speed.

According to Schwartz and Krabbendam, “Bigger and Faster is not necessarily better.”

Designing proportionally and at an appropriate, human scale is crucial in this criterion.

Post primary, secondary research and affinitizing this gave real light to our solutions. Being able to fit our solutions into these new How Might We’s, the similarities in the criteria was truly exceptional.

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Asheville, USA

Chennai, IN

Mexico City, MX

Medellin, CO

Los Angeles, USA

Surat, IN

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Denver, USA

Atlanta, GA

Liège, BE

Boston, USA

Chicago, USA

Paris, FR

New Orleans,

Thessaloniki, GR

Toronto, CA

100 RESILIENT CITIES

Byblos, LB

Cali, CO

Santiago, CL

Pune, IN

Washington, D.C.

The Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities Any successful research project begins with some in-depth secondary research.

For us, that meant looking into case studies of cities that are functioning well..

individuals, communities, institutions, businesses, and systems within a city to adapt and grow no matter what kinds of stresses and shocks they may experience.

Because we were searching for ways to foster resiliency we looked into the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities. 100 Resilient Cities works with municipalities worldwide to build resilience in light of the growing social, economic, and physical challenges of the 21st century.

In total, our team researched 20 different resilient city case studies. From these, we selected the top 3 case studies that we believed best informed our project: Denver, Colorado; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Mexico City, Mexico.

A resilient city is one that can both survive and thrive — regardless of the challenges it is faced with. It is the capacity of

The following infographics show how many of the initiatives and programs we found in each city and how they addressed the 6 key aspets of Design Impact’s Metathemes.

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S E CO N DA RY R E S E A R C H

Denver, Colorado “Resilience is integrated and enculturated into everything we do -- a set of behaviors we practice every day, not simply when someone needs help.”

Addressing climate change has been a priority in Denver. They have a breadth of programs to expand energy efficiency and water use, improve commitment to renewable energy and protect the tree canopy in urban areas. Denver’s resiliency officers have even implemented an expanisive city-wide Environmental 18

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100 RESILIENT CITIES

Approach

Metathemes

Top Down Bridge Norms

Bottom Up Go Beyond Feedback

Feed My Soul

Redesign the System

Give Room to Heal

Keep Promises

Denver

Management System.

While Savannah can learn much from Denver’s passion for sustainability, we are more concerned with programs involving the citizens Colorado’s mile-high capitol and what they have done to make their city more resilient.

Through our research, we discovered just that. Denver has found that strong food systems support resiliency of the community in the face of an uncertain future. The Denver Food Vision is an

extensive public engagement process which included businesses, nonprofits, government agencies, and members of the general public supporting community listening sessions across 11 districts.

So far, they have produced spectacular results centered around food systems and feeding the community. These discussions begin with prominant figures of the community sparking healthy conversations around something we all need to survive healthy food.

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S E CO N DA RY R E S E A R C H

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans has its obvious need for resilience. While Savannah has thankfully not endured everything New Orleans has in the past, many of the stresses and shocks are similar, including the health of the coastal geography, equitable opportunities for the citizens, and transit for people to stay connected throughout the city.

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100 RESILIENT CITIES

Approach

Metathemes

Top Down Bridge Norms

Bottom Up Go Beyond Feedback

Feed My Soul

Redesign the System

Give Room to Heal

Keep Promises

New Orleans

New Orleans has three main areas of concern, the first being a maintained healthy relationship with their unique coastal geography. This includes restoring and protecting the coast, managing urban water, incentivizing property owners to retrofit their homes to reduce risk from natural disasters, and integrating environmental awareness programs.

Like Savannah, New Orleans is also concerned with providing equitable opportunities for all New Orleanians. From investing in the financial stability of low-income households to increasing workforce par-

ticipation. We feel we can learn from New Orleans’s hard work in homicide reduction, public safety, social cohesion, and expanding access to affordable housing. All of the work they are doing to provide opportunities would be wasted if people cannot access those opportunities.

New Orleans is also working to improve its transit system in order to better connect people to services and employment, to promote sustainability as a growth strategy (hooray!), and to create a pre-disaster plan for post-disaster recovery.

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S E CO N DA RY R E S E A R C H

Mexico City, Mexico After reading about New Orleans and Denver one might think that Resilience Strategies can be only applied in smaller cities, but what can happen in a city with more than 20 million people? Can one really change the environment? This is the case of Mexico City.

Mexico City (CDMX for branding purposes) is the capitol of Mexico and is the main political, academic, economic, fashion, financial, business and cultural center of the country. Mexico City was built in a valley and has grown to become one of the top 10 most populated cities in the world, and as you can imagine, this transformation happened in an era when sustainable practices were not a big concern. Therefore, the city is now facing several environmental, social and economic challenges due to its geographic location and the socio-environmental transformation.

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currentlyexploring.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/wpid5940-mexicocity-1.jpg

100 RESILIENT CITIES

Approach

Metathemes

Top Down Bridge Norms

Bottom Up Go Beyond Feedback

Feed My Soul

Redesign the System

Give Room to Heal

Keep Promises

Mexico City

So how can a city that is this big can address those problems in a resilient way?

The government of the city decided to establish 5 main goals to help the city address its main issues. The first of those goals aims to create regional coordination by making a national agenda with the experience of different cities combined to function as a guide for other cities in the country.

For the second goal, Mexico City is promoting water resilience by taking action in several ways. City officials are installing temporary rainwater collection systems and water “kiosks� that will allow communities without access to adequate water to be self-sufficient. The third goal is planning for urban resilience, which means creating public spaces with environmental

purposes. Mexico City is promoting the installation of green roofs and vertical gardens (the city has already installed green walls along its highways). The aim is to create the first fully resilient community.

Like Denver, Mexico City is improving mobility by making the city more friendly for pedestrians and bikers in order to decrease the usage of vehicles. Finally, perhaps one of the most interesting goals is implementing informative campaigns.

These initiatives ensure that citizens are always aware of the actions being carried out and let them know how they can participate themselves.

If a city can be made stronger by travesty, another become known for its adverse policies, and yet another city populated with millions of people can align its goals and 23

S E CO N DA RY R E S E A R C H

Case Studies After researching and learning mostly about top-down initiatives and activities on cities’ resilience we wanted to look into the bottom-up approach as well.

We used mainly Open IDEO as the source of inspiration but other sources as well as our own experiences from different corners of the world were fruitful sources too. We discovered many cases of how citizens in different parts of the world come together, how the connect and how they, through fun and activities, help to build the community’s resilience.

Our international and diverse team had a lot of passionate debates as the research was bringing up many memories of our own in all of us, from our travels, experiences and lives in general.

More than 30 case studies brought lot of inspiration and stayed in our minds further on during the project.

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MORE CASE STUDIES

These are some of examples: Bicinecleta is project produced by Spanish design studio, Basurama. The concept consisted of a modified bicycle fitted with a projector that was installed in Madrid . The projector showed pictures on the walls of abandoned buildings and spaces to highlight with the intention to prompt converting them into useful places for public use.

Bonding Buffet was implemented by KLM airline as a Christmas installation in airports where every chair around an elevated table (pictured left) had to be occupied in order to make the table itself, complete with a prepared feast, lower enough for those sitting to actually reach and eat the meal. It made strangers traveling throuogh the airport sit and share the moment together while connecting through food.

cept with a sharing economy in mind that helps individuals and small businesses reduce the cost of maintaining the places in which they live, work, and play. Tool libraries offer hundreds of both hand and power tools for tasks such as landscaping, home repair, and automobile maintenance.

Waldenlabs is a community pursuit of self-reliance which uses an open online platform of articles. These write-ups share inspiration on topics like food, water, energy, and shelter.

Along with many interesting projects Waldenlabs talks about the rise of Green Collar Jobs which are local jobs with sustainable principles and community happiness at their core. These jobs lead to a positive cycle of fostering more jobs and better wellbeing.

Tool Library for Every District is a con25

S E CO N DA RY R E S E A R C H

Infrastructure

Affinitization + Key Findings The insights gleaned from our secondary research and initial primary research showed recurring themes of communication and transportation.

greatest impact, we mused that these groups of benevolent individuals needed to “disappear� to an extent, becoming less conspicuous to be more effective.

Although Savannah has a few organizations and events meant to facilitate community-building, without proper transportation available the location of those resources has become crucial.

Our team talked about the importance of utilizing currently existing assets rather than creating brand new concepts. We regrouped and decided to focus on how to amplify the impacts of our efforts, focusing pointedly on healthy social capital.

Access to food is even an issue in some parts of Savannah. In order to make the 26

A F F I N I T I Z AT I O N

Through the affinitization process, we began to see our data points naturally forming into these six ‘capitals’, or groups of assets available to any city or community. As shown in the figure, we found that Savannah has more capital in certain categories over others. Through

our research, we found little that addressed Savannah’s natural capital which could be a potential gap to be filled within the community. However, we found Savannah’s social capital to be brimming with action and engagement. A healthy balance is needed for any resilient city or

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Primary Research E M E R G E N T S AVA N N A H - C O M M U N I T Y E V E N T S - I N T E R V I E W S H O W M I G H T W E ’ S - D E S I G N P R I N C I P A L S - P R E S E N TAT I O N 2

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PRIMARY RESEARCH

EVENT

Monday Means Community In Emergent Savannah’s own words: “Monday Means Community is a collaborative event series that promotes discussion and access to information on civic and cultural life. The series highlights both local and non-local figures, current events and ultimately aims to give people the means to take action and become more connected to those working on any given cause.”

Monday Means Community: Back in the Day to Current Day: Savannah Activism Over Time was held at the Sentient Bean cafe as Emergent Savannah’s Monday Means Community series always are. The evening was moderated by Patt Gunn with guests Reverend Gilbert Hall and Mr. Grover Thorton. The gentlemen spoke largely about African American life in Savannah from the pre-civil rights era to the present.

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COMMUNITY EVENTS

EVENT

Government 101: We the People Government 101: We the People was an event put on by Step Up! Savannah at The Holy Spirit Lutheran Church in early April. The goal was to educate citizens about how our governmental systems work and the roles community members play within those systems. Facilitated

by Professor Gwen Jordan of Savannah State University, participation was a must.

Professor Jordan broke the crowd of 30 people into groups who were given different topics of discussion to work through together. One exercise had attendees coming up with questions of concern for fictional political candidates. These “candidates” were portrayed by other attend-

ees who were not necessarily well-versed on the concerns the “citizens” presented them with.

The activity showed that while many residents have issues with politicians elected into office, those same residents are not always sure how to voice their concerns.

This problem was only an example of the overarching issue that citizens are often ill-equipped to fully exercise their rights as citizens. Providing education on the branches of the federal government as well as our electoral voting system and a little history of American politics, Government 101 empowered participants to be 31

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COMMUNITY EVENTS

EVENT

Savannah Earth Day Festival SA/GA is a project to bring people together and foster resilience within the local community of Savannah. It encapsulates the spirit of Savannah’s rich cultural history, uniqueness, inclusiveness, and innovation through stories, relationships, and wisdom.

These stories become the legacies of the citizens, and our team wanted to find out what those legacies might be. For the Savannah Earth Day Festival in Forsyth Park on April 15th, we created an opportunity for citizens to share their stories, asking festival goers to “Tell us a story of when you felt close to your community.”

bors helping out during hurricane Matthew. Children reminded us of simple gestures of kindness that we all too easily forget; picking up a friend when they fall and loving your family. SCAD students, regardless of their time in Savannah were all able to tell stories of human kindness.

Travelers let us know that they loved the history and sense of community woven into the cultural fabric of Savannah which caused them to return to the city time and time again.

Our idea was to have individuals respond to this prompt by writing their “story” on a piece of compostable origami paper.

Participants could then fold their papers into hearts, fill the hearts with seeds of a vegetable and plant them in a community garden.

We created an instagram page for SA/GA to share photos of people holding their written responses and encouraged them to post their own with #saga. We held a workshop at the festival where we taught everyone how to fold the stories into origami hearts to hold seeds for bush beans.

Meanwhile they could share aloud some of the stories. Participants were also invited to decorate a wooden stake to identify their own planted hearts.

People shared stories about their neigh-

We worked with the SCAD gardening club 33

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COMMUNITY EVENTS

EVENT

Citizen Advocacy Covered Dish Chatham-Savannah Citizen Advocacy is a local non-profit organization that supports over 100 local citizens. They build life long one-on-one relationships between volunteers and citizens with a developmental disability.

Once a year, these relationships are shared and celebrated during “The Best Covered Dish Supper in Savannah.” Volunteers, board members, and their families come together over food that each has made and brought for everyone to share.

This year May 9th was the 39th annual Covered Dish Supper. The evening started with appetizers of homemade dips and vegetable trays, a local band, and drinks on the patio of Savannah Station. As the setting sun glared into everyone’s eyes and stomachs began to rumble, we were ushered into the main event space. Music followed us and reverberated until table numbers were finally called to line up for our shared meal. Long tables were packed with casserole dishes, bowls, and pots.

You could see people eyeing the table, searching for their own dishes or pointing

them out to their loved ones, making sure they were saved a scoop.

The food was delicious. We connected to people around our table over who made which dish and what their role was in Savannah. After the meal, a volunteer led us through the story of the woman she was introduced to 30 years ago when she began volunteering with Citizen Advocacy. Since they met, they have helped each other through the good and bad in both of their lives. They meet at least once a week to run errands, go to doctors appointments, or just sit and drink tea together.

Relationships like this are vital for any resilient city. The people united by Citizen Advocacy, both volunteers and those with disabilities, have a better understanding of Savannah and the problems it faces. By building lifelong bonds across neighborhoods, across socioeconomic status, gender, race, and abilities, all voices become advocates for each other. The evening left us remembering that “We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.”

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PRIMARY RESEARCH

Interviews Questions We compiled a list questions intended to get interviewees to open up about themselves, their thoughts on a changing Savannah and their work in the community.

1. Tell us about who you are and what do you do.

2. How long have you been in Savannah?

3. Why is Savannah “home” to you?

4. Can you tell me about your involvement with Emergent Savannah’s Monday Means Community series?

5. What do you feel is your role/mission in the community of Savannah?

6. What do you think makes Savannah different from other cities in the nation? …. from other cities in the South?

7. What are the underutilized or unseen assets in the Savannah community? How do you think these could be mobilized?

8. What do you think are the three most pressing issues affecting citizens of Savannah?

9. What do you think should be done to make

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Savannah more resilient to natural disasters like the hurricane? (Maybe if they mention it as an issue, if not we can pass) 10. What is your impression of why the city of Savannah is in the state that it is?

11. What organizations do you know that are doing meaningful work around Savannah other than Emergent Savannah? Are there any gaps?

12. How do you think your skills could be used to improve the community?

13. If you could pick 2 people/organizations in Savannah to sit down and work with each other today, who would you choose and why?

14. In your opinion, what is preventing citizens from becoming more involved in the community?

15. How would you better integrate students and people of different nationalities into the community and get them involved?

16. What do you want to see happen in Savannah in the next 5 years? 10 years?

17. Imagine you had a magic wand to change anything in Savannah. Name one thing you would use it for?

INTERVIEWS

Interviewees Coco Papy, Emergent Savannah Tom Kohler, Emergent Savannah Betsy Bull, Emergent Savannah Beverlee Trotter, Savannah Youth City Director Pat Stewart, Psychologist + professional clinical counselor Kelly Steele, Reverend, Colombia House Will Peebles, Reporter, Savannah Morning News Diego Garcia, Musician Kristin Russell, Owner, Sentient Bean Liz Rhaney, Photography Editor, Inkwell Joe Steffan, University Council, Savannah State University Clinton Edminster, Owner, Starlandia Lisa Junkin Lopez, Executive Director, Juliette Low Birthplace Ryan Madson, SCAD Urban Design professor Ashley Helmholdt, Sustainability Coordinator, City of Sav. Tania Sammons, Curator, Green-Meldrim House Van Johnson, City Alderman Xulu Jones, Xulu Prophet Miriam Center, THE Miriam Center Omar Boone, Artist Chris Mendrala, Videographer Brittany Curry, Artist/ Graphic recorder Brooks Stillwell, Attorney at Law / City Attorney Dr. Carolyn Dowse, Sapelo Island Cultural and Revitalization Society (SICARS) Sean Brandon, Management Services Bureau Chief, City of Sav. Kevin Klinkenberg, Executive Director, Savannah Downtown Renewal Authority Shawn Kachmar, School Board / Attorney Martin Bell, Spoken Word Artist, Postcrunk Jessica Mathis, Volunteer Services Coordinator, Georgia Regional Hospital Jessica Leigh Lebos, Columnist, Connect Savannah Mary Landers, Environmental Reporter, Sav. Morning News Jerome Meadows, Artist / Owner, Indigo Sky Gallery Trelani Michelle, Author “We Speak Fuh We�

Thanks to Emergent Savannah to providing direct contact to past participants of their Monday Means Community panel members for interviews

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PRIMARY RESEARCH

Interviews

Signature Quotes Before we began affinitizing our primary research, we transcribed the entirety of our interviews and extracted signature quotes to add to our data points.

These quotes helped guide us in the direction of what residents in the community need, and how our stakeholders thought the city of Savannah could be improved.

These quotes played a key role in determining our final solutions.

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"I wish there were more students involved in community. We need more energy…”

"Savannah is small so we cannot ignore each other”

"Savannah has always lacked long-term cohesive physical planning"

“...we have native american history that goes back thousand and thousands years”

“I hope we don't pass that tipping point where downtown is only for tourists and wealthy people and vacation rentals.”

"I would like to see growth in residential sector and transportation"

“We were going to stay 2 years and ended up staying 20.”

"If it's just one person's vision [of the future] it's not meaningful; it's weak."

"I would like to erase the mistrust that people in this community have among themselves"

“...conversation...needs to happen more than once a year”

"Savannah has people from all over the world"

“...we don’t want them at the table because we are afraid of what they might say”

“...a city that is dominated by tourism. All of these people take the city as an amusement park.”

"There are a lot of people out there who want to help but structurally, we do not empower them" "Political pressure by citizens can make things work" “If I see a problem within the community, I have to do my part to make it better.”

"People sit there and complain about the community all day. But... are you coming out and doing the little things that someone needs to do in order to help?"

“When people don't have access to the right food - that's a form of discrimination.” “...this shadow population that is never heard.”

"Gentrification, poverty, and violence are the 3 most pressing issues in Savannah. They all create disconnected communities."

"The three most pressing issues in Savannah are economics, education, and access."

"We need an inclusive sustainability plan - one that bridges the gaps through community outreach."

“One of the most underutilized assets within Savannah is the churches, and the large part of the community that attends them on a regular basis.”

century.”

“People need to be empowered to help themselves.”

“Poverty is the first major issue affecting Savannah, which many other problems are symptoms of (such as street violence). Related is the education system which isn't up to par with other places in the country” “We keep trying to reinvent the wheel”

“Savannah is very segregated and not just by race”

"Lethargy and inertia prevents people from getting involved without being asked."

“Activism in savannah is in a coffee shop or over dinner or at parties...not marching on the streets.”

“The goal is let people understand”

"Income" is one of the pressing issue in Savannah. People cannot afford to enjoy the city when their main purpose is survival. Safety is another issue.”

"Number one thing for me would be to meaningfully address poverty, and the isolation between different communities.” “...we should be designing for the 21st

“The same issues revolve every single state (police violence), Savannah needs improvement in education” “Thank God hurricane Matthew blew through, so that we could fix things” “...help everyone with their hopes and dreams, and move them away from their fears.”

“Our level of poverty pervades though almost everything else.”

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PRIMARY RESEARCH

Affinitization of Primary Research We sorted through hundreds of data points from our primary research and discovered many viewpoints. People thought that Savannah was a strange place full of conflicting agendas yet participants universally agreed that Savannah was a physically beautiful place.

In terms of city development, concerns spanned from zoning and infrastructure to safety and transportation. As our data depicted it, Savannah is a place for opportunities, full of small businesses and international cultures, yet the city’s residents are disconnected.

Communication is poor, discrimination and racism are recurring, citizens mistrust each other and lack of long term planning has 40

left them looking to a government that seems aloof. Instead, decisions are made by a select group which does not prioritize people and champions economic gains from Savannah’s tourism industry. This keeps jobs primarily in the hospitality sector and contributes to poverty. People in Savannah commune around food, making the restaurants and farmers market heralded aspects of the community in addition to art.

Despite the city’s shortcomings or perhaps in light of them, collaborations are sprouting up in Savannah as parents and community leaders seek to support diversity, improve education and spread a shared vision of Savannah of health and equality

A F F I N I T I Z AT I O N

Insights After the the grouping and regrouping of data points was completed, we finally reached the first sweet spot in the process.

However with over 1,000 data points and several rounds of organizing, we still needed to compare our apples to apples.

We accomplished this by organizing the data into 14 key learnings which were distilled even further to produce our six key insights.

One insight emphasized the many great organizations in Savannah with no plan of communication.

Another showed that citizens tend to avoid involvement with issues that do not affect them directly.

Ultimately our research revealed a brilliance within Savannah residents that can be maximized through collaboration.

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PRIMARY RESEARCH

The green, red and blue sections represent different stages in the affinitizations (grouping) process.

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A F F I N I T I Z AT I O N

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PRIMARY RESEARCH

How Might We’s + Design Principles The ideation phase is where our creative minds ignite to transform established insights into solution-focused prompts in the form of “How might we...?” questions. Our team narrowed the questions down to three key “How might we’s” that covered all our findings. » How might we bring generations together? » How might we inform people about Savannah? » How might we educate in order to avoid segregation?

We created a Design Principles checklist for each of our concepts to fully address. » Inform citizens » Increase community caring » Improve the wheel, don’t reinvent it » Bring diverse people together » Be economically and time sensitive » Provide an “open source” blueprint » Be inclusive of all citizens and organizations » Utilize our team’s assets 44

INITIAL CONCEPTS

Our Concept Ideation Process Once we defined our design principles and 3 “How might we...?” questions, we started to brainstorm ideas that could help build community in Savannah.

Each team member came up with 5 concepts with titles, descriptions and sketches. After reviewing them, we did an additional brainstorming session where we broke up into 3 groups according our “How might we...?” questions, which resulted in over 100 ideas.

From there we narrowed down our concepts based on how impactful and feasible we thought each was given time and

resources and by how well they addressed our design principles.

After that, we had 4 loosely defined projects ideas, which we presented to our community stakeholders at our second presentation. Presentation 2 was orchestrated in order to get feedback regarding what our stakeholders thought would be the most impactful and how we could improve our ideas.

In order to “not re-invent the wheel” (one of our established design principles), we also found other successful projects similar to our concepts that had been implemented in other cities.

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PRIMARY RESEARCH

Confessional A public space that could function as a two-way conversation where strangers can connect and share their stories. We think that this idea could incorporate the following insights we found through our research: - That Savannah needs more open communication and human interaction; - That we need more spaces where diverse people can connect and get to know each other; - And that collaboration between people can unleash their full potential.

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INITIAL CONCEPTS

Our hope is that the confessional would bring people together to get to know one another and build community and empathy over time as citizens see each other around town and remember their shared moments together.

EXAMPLE: Take a Seat, Make a Friend: A temporary installation where strangers can get to know each other in a fun and open space.

Temporary airport installation on Christmas night where strangers came together to enjoy Christmas dinner.

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PRIMARY RESEARCH

Factivate Billboard A public information hub where FACTS or stories could be shared to help ACTIVATE the community. We think that this idea could incorporate the following insights we found through our research: - That education and empathy are the key to success of Savannah’s future; - That need more spaces where diverse people can connect and use their voice; - And that there are a lot of great orgs in Savannah with no means of communication.

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INITIAL CONCEPTS

The information hub could address issues in Savannah by providing open and transparent information, and by sharing the stories, worries and hopes of community members.

We also thought a concept like this could be incorporated into something like the Art March.

EXAMPLE: London: A physical, permanent structure that could display and even collect a variety of information Madrid: A temporary, timely installation (like this project in Madrid used to bring attention to vacant lots in the city) that could be utilized at specific moments in time.

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PRIMARY RESEARCH

The People’s Tour Would allow people in Savannah to access histories that aren’t told in the text books, or by the tour companies offered around town. We think that this idea could incorporate the following insights we found through our research: - Education and empathy are needed to building a more inclusive Savannah; - We need to focus on taking care of residents, instead of growing tourism; - Savannah needs a shared long term vision of our future in order to progress.

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INITIAL CONCEPTS

We hope that this would foster a more empathetic and inclusive society that is willing to listen to the stories of all people.

EXAMPLE: Emergent Savannah has actually worked with an idea like this during their Roving Listener project, so we would be looking to expand this idea and make it even more inclusive and accessible to people who might not normally get involved.

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PRIMARY RESEARCH

Humans of Savannah Would highlight the diverse members of our community and share their stories. We think that this idea could incorporate the following insights we found through our research: - That citizens have the ability to fix local issues through empowerment and information; - We need more spaces where diverse people come together; - The most resilient cities are the ones able to self organize.

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INITIAL CONCEPTS

This could be a visual storytelling project and an extension of the SAGA project that we worked with on Earth Day; or even a podcast on 107.5 that Emergent Savannah is already working with. The mission would be to connect people, share information and become a more inclusive and empathetic community.

EXAMPLES: Humans of New York: Photographer documents the stories of the citizens in NY. French street artists who makes visible the portraits of residents through public installations.

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PRIMARY RESEARCH

Presentation 2: Feedback Presentation 2 saw attendance from nearly all of our interviewees who would end up providing feedback that would influence the last half of our project.

We began by presenting our 4 sacrificial concepts: Factivate Billboard, Confessional, People’s Tour and Humans of Savannah.

Afterward a fruitful discussion ensued among the attendees, praising the increased communication aspects of the concepts while posing questions that needed to be asked.

The Tour was great because it got people out and about talking to each other while seeing parts of Savannah they might otherwise miss. The Billboard was liked because it communicated ideas to a large number of people who might not always get to be a part of important conversations.

Humans of Savannah crossed multiple mediums which allowed for a broad viewership. Finally the Confessional afforded individualsthe opportunity to speak plainly and learn new things about each other.

As different stakeholders championed their preferred concepts, discussion arose over the what locality we meant by “Savannah.”

The idea and perimeters of “Savannah” do not mean the same thing to everyone.

Did we interview city officials? Is Emergent Savannah the only community organization we’re working with? How do we engage other organizations, communities and areas that are often overlooked?

The discussion revealed that most of our concepts could be combined in various ways to draw strength from each other. If we were strategic, we could gather multiple stories from various community members with the right collaborative effort. The talks concluded warmly, but questions from the attendees were left lingering in our heads.

What are we listening to that we are not hearing? How do we avoid the mistakes of others that have come before us?

Where do we go from here?

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Prototyping + Final Results

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62

R E S U LT S

A Note on Final Concepts Rather than choosing a single idea and trying to design it to perfection, our team decided to prototype all 4 concepts. With no time to waste, we broke into smaller more agile teams that would be able to swiftly carry out each design concept. We would then collect feedback, tally our results and present the findings gathered from each prototype.

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R E S U LT S

1.

The People’s Tour WHO

WHAT

T H E P E O P L E I N VO LV E D T H R O U G H T H I S E V E N T

E V E R Y T H I N G T H AT T H E E V E N T E N TA I L E D

Number of people used to execute: 1 tour guide, 4 teammates

Materials: Conversation cards & good walking shoes.

Cost: We offered compensation to Tyrone, however, he did not accept our offer and instead asked that if we would like to do anything with money, we shoudl donate it to the Woodville Community Center. We donated $100 to the Woodville Community Center.

People we reached out to:

Documentation:

Tyrone Ware

9:00am - Guests arrive by car, Tyrone arrives by car at Woodville Community Center 9:10am - Depart Woodville Community Center 9:10-11:00am - Tour of Woodville neighborhood, led by Tyrone Ware - Presented to guests about the community's history, their social fabric, stories of residents, and different approaches they have taken through the years to build up their community.

11:05am - Present Tyrone with gift and donation

Who participated: 8 SCAD students, 3 friends

Reflect on what we learned from Tyrone and thought about our role in the community.

Follow-up ‘thank you’ e-mail to Tyrone Ware.

WHEN

WHERE

W H E N O U R P E O P L E ’ S O U R TO O K P L AC E

W H E R E O U R P E O P L E ’ S TO U R TO O K P L AC E

Date event was held: May 20th, 2017 Time event was held: 9:00-11:00am

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After the Event:

Location: Woodville Community Why Chosen: The Woodville community is the community Tyrone Ware lives in & is familiar with.

P R OTOT Y P I N G

WHY

INSIGHTS

W H Y W E F O U N D T H I S E V E N T TO B E M E A N I N G F U L

T H E M A J O R T H I N G S T H AT W E L E A R N E D

The Purpose of the Event:

The purpose of the People’s Tour is to draw people out of their own neighborhood bubbles to other areas of the community. The tour is led by one or more passionate neighborhood residents who guide a group through their neighborhood while sharing stories about the history of the area and their personal stories of their experiences. The tour allows people to see neighborhoods in a way that they’d never be able to see otherwise — through the eyes of the people who live there. The goals of the tour are to form a “people’s history” of the community, to spark human interaction, and to build relationships and empathy throughout the community that will ultimately make the community more resilient.

What Worked: - Our tour guide was someone who had lived in the community for quite some time, therefore he knew everyone in the neighborhood and had a large database of knowledge to pull information from.

- We heard inspiring stories about how members of the community come together in times of need to support each other and to defend their neighborhood from outside threats.

- Attendants of the tour expressed that they felt closer to their community after the tour.

What Didn’t Work: The event takes a fair amount of time to plan and advertise. Because we only had 1 week to put together the prototype of the event, our participants consisted mostly of SCAD students because they were able to adjust to a last-minute schedule.

Key Learnings: - A community is only as resilient as its people. What we saw in Woodville was that neighbors look out for each other and genuinely care for one another. Because the residents work together to solve problems, they have built up a sense of trust over time. The people of the Woodville community feel safe, supported, and happy to live where they do.

- If we were to do this event again in the future, we would be sure to allow oadequate time to plan and to advertise the event.

We’d like to incorporate more than 1 tour guide, and to draw in community members from all over Savannah — not just SCAD.

MOVING FORWARD The Future:

Maps made by locals for non-locals: An open source map available to anyone who visits the city. The map would highlight local businesses, hangouts, and neighborhoods as well as provide stories/tips from locals.

Interactive Tour - with facilitator: The ‘Interactive Tour’ is inspired by the idea of a scavenger hunt. The facilitator would give the participants a map to follow during the tour.

Interactive Tour - without facilitator: There could be an online sign-up or MeetUp group to form the tour group. The participant would instead read a handout located at each station and work together to get through the tour and in the end, they will have formed relationships with one another.

Potential Partnerships:

Youth - As tour guides, the tour would allow them to express their unique views of their neighborhood. As attendants, the tour would expose youth to their surrounding communities. In either scenario, it would encourage youth to become more active and involved in their community.

Homeless - This idea is inspired by Pragulic, a homeless-lead tour based in Prague, Czech Republic. As tour guides, homeless people would be given a sense of purpose and belonging, as well as an opportunity to earn money. A homeless-led tour would allow attendants to see their city in a completely different way than they have ever seen.

Elderly - As tour guides, elderly are among the best tour guides we can think of. These people have extensive, fascinating knowledge about their communities that would be a real treat for attendants to hear.

Through this, not only would elderly become more involved in their communities, but they would be given a meaningful activity to perform.

How To: One. Identify community leader(s) you’d like to act as tour guides and indentify what group of people you’d like to attend the tour.

Two. Contact tour guide(s) to make sure they’re on board and brainstorm with them about tour stops.

Three. Invite everyone that you’d like to attend the tour.

Four. Execute the tour. Can modify the tour as you see fit.

Five. Follow-up with the tour guide and tour attendants to

thank them for their time and to get their feedback about the event.

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R E S U LT S

2.

Community Board WHO

WHAT

T H E P E O P L E I N VO LV E D T H R O U G H T H I S E V E N T

E V E R Y T H I N G T H AT T H E E V E N T E N TA I L E D

Number of people used to execute: 3 teammates People we reached out to: Betsy from Emergent Savannah Who participated: SCAD Students and Emergent Savannah.

Materials: Projector and Laptop, Table (to put the projector on), extension cords, electricity, design software (Illustrator, After Effects, Adobe Premiere)

Documentation:

8:00 pm - Set up projector and laptop 8:10 pm - Load video and adjust projector image 8:10pm - 11:00pm - The Community Board is projected and people read and share their thoughts. No event or people in place required.

Actions before event: Set Up Template Choose Topic.

Pick a place.

Collect information from organizations, MMC, Local Stories.

Fill Template Create Video Check up

Actions after event: Check hashtags

WHEN

WHERE

W H E N O U R P E O P L E ’ S O U R TO O K P L AC E

W H E R E O U R P E O P L E ’ S TO U R TO O K P L AC E

Date event was held: Saturday, May 20

Location of event: Sulfur Studios

Time event was held:

Reason that location was selected:

8:00pm - 11:00pm

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The location was selected since the offices of Emergent Savannah, one of our collaborators, are located inside the building.

P R OTOT Y P I N G

WHY

INSIGHTS

T H E P E O P L E I N VO LV E D T H R O U G H T H I S E V E N T

E V E R Y T H I N G T H AT T H E E V E N T E N TA I L E D

Purpose of event: A public information hub with the purpose of activating the community and keeping citizens informed about local issues, people and organizations in the community working on them, and opinions and thoughts of locals. The aim of the Community Board is to build empathy and create a more resilient city between citizens and align the goals of the community by promoting and sharing common goals and worries, and letting people share their thoughts via online.

What worked: The animation, big titles, and bright colors of the video projected on a wall during the night made the information stand out and more visible for people walking around the block. This platform is a free and new way to share and bring information to the citizens in their neighbors.

What didn’t work: A textured wall with bricks makes readability difficult, especially since the projection was in a small scale and the complementary texts were small and not bold, which makes people not pay attention and read the text.

We couldn’t integrate the live feed section in the board, which reduced the people’s engagement with the board and didn’t allow them to share their thoughts.

MOVING FORWARD The Future:

Potential Partnerships:

How To:

LCD screens where people can share their thoughts and stories via LiveFeeds from social media, interactive activities.

Local events

One. Pick a local topic and research with organizations and people working on the selected topic.

Permanent installations around the city.

Interaction with the other concepts – Friend-O-Matic, Humans of Savannah and The people’s Tour: This is a great opportunity to integrate these concepts. We saw during our first projection event that if you set up the confessional next to the billboard, people waiting for the activity, will be able to have fun and inform themselves while watching the digital billboard. Humans of Savannah has a great potential to integrate to this concept, because as we propose they are showing stories about different people telling their stories, and we have in our template a space to make a recognition to people around Savannah talking about the main topic selected. With The People’s tour, it can be a great opportunity to promote the event, and at the same time, show the story about the leader who will be guiding the people.

Local organizations working for the community.

Two. Extract the key information and update the information located in the Illustrator Files and save.

Three. Open Adobe After Effects File and the information

will be uploaded automatically.

Four. Adjust details on the video. Export video in Quicktime

and H264 format

Five. Find a place that is dark enough to project the video.

Set up the projector and laptop to project and share information with the community!

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R E S U LT S

3.

Humans of Savannah-Chatham WHO

WHAT

T H E P E O P L E I N VO LV E D T H R O U G H T H I S E V E N T

E V E R Y T H I N G T H AT T H E E V E N T E N TA I L E D

Number of people used to execute: 2 teammates (1 photographer + recorder, 1 interviewer.)

People we reached out to: People hanging out at Daffin, O-Mall, and Forsyth.

Who participated: 5 people in total

Materials: Good quality camera, Audio recorder (cellphone app)

Cost: Cost of gas driving to ifferent locations, bus fare

Documentation (Oglethorpe Mall): 2.00 pm - Reached Ogelthrope mall bus stop. Walk towards the Mall entrance 2.05 pm - Moved around the mall and approached few people and at the beginning got negative response from many.

2.40 pm - Continued talking to people till we finally met a couple Tracy and Cynthia who were casually hanging out at the mall and were willing to talk to us. We spoke with them and they were very engrossed and enjoyed sharing each other’s story.

3.15 PM - On our way out, we bumped into this beautiful old couple “Bobby and Barbara who were very easy going and welcoming. They even showed us their grand daughter’s pictures which was an incentive to this exercise.

After the Event: Transcribe interviews, pull out the most meaningful quotes verbatim, and schedule posts to publish on Facebook once a week until we have more content.

WHEN

WHERE

W H E N O U R P E O P L E ’ S O U R TO O K P L AC E

W H E R E O U R P E O P L E ’ S TO U R TO O K P L AC E

Dates + Times: Daffin Park

05/14/2017 1:45 - 2:15PM Downtown Savannah

05/14/2017 12 - 2PM Ogelthorpe Mall

05/14/2017 2-3:15PM

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Locations: We aimed to deploy at Tybee, Downtown Savannah, Oglethorpe Mall, Daffin Park and Starlandia in order to get a diverse number of people involved in the process.

Downtown and Oglethorpe Mall proved to be the most successful in this first iteration.

P R OTOT Y P I N G

WHY

INSIGHTS

W H Y W E F O U N D T H I S E V E N T TO B E M E A N I N G F U L

T H E M A J O R T H I N G S T H AT W E L E A R N E D

The purpose of the event: Connect people, Uncover strengths, Empower each other, Increase empathy

What Worked: - Once we got the poeple to gain our trust we could get thier stories out and the questions really worked well and they were actually talking and into each other and they knew each other well as we interviewed two couple.

- Taking time to scope out setting and understand how to approach people. Be conscious of people’s time and comfort zones.

- Going up to couples instead of a single person because the questions we asked were difficult to answer of ones-self

What Didn’t Work: - Daffin Park - The time we chose to go. People were focused on their own activities and did not seem interested in engaging outside questioning.

- Walking up to anyone and interrogating them.

Key Learnings: - Couples discovered/rediscovered each other more, it made them speak out words which are almost unsaid most of the time but create empathy and understanding between them.

- Understand when to approach people and when to leave them alone. Daffin Park did not produce any interviews, but the mood of the park just wasn’t right.

- Quality over quantity

MOVING FORWARD How it could be improved: - Perhaps choose to participate in some activities at Daffin Park first.

Get to know the scene and what goes on before barging in and hunting for stories. Know your audience and know your place.

- Design some informal prompts like “Humans of Savannah” t-shirt to collect more responses.

- Hold training sessions and Humans of Savannah events to get more people involved in the process. Organize teams of 2 and deploy them in different neighborhoods. Create a stockpile of photos and stories that can be shared on social media.

- Create a print document with the best of all the stories and photos collected; print and distrubute once or twice a year.

Potential Partnerships: Savannah Morning news

SCAD Photography Department or Clubs DEEP Center

How To: One. Prepare a list of questions to ask people Two. Go to desired location and people watch to understand the setting Three. Go to desired location and people watch to

understand the setting

Four. Tell them a little about Humans of Savannah and ask if

they’d like to participate

Five. If yes, ask if they mind having their picture taken Six. Interview (record if they allow) Seven. Photograph Eight. Post impactful quote or excerpt from their interview with photo on social media

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R E S U LT S

4.

The Friend-O-Matic WHO

WHAT

T H E P E O P L E I N VO LV E D T H R O U G H T H I S E V E N T

E V E R Y T H I N G T H AT T H E E V E N T E N TA I L E D

Number of people used to execute: 4 teammates

Materials: PVC structure; old sheets for the panels; second hand chairs; printed question cards

Cost: PVC structure: $, Donated sheets: $0, Second hand chairs and spray paint: $20, Question cards: $

People we reached out to:

Documentation:

East Side Concerned Citizens (scheduling didn’t work out.)

5:45pm - Set up structure at the doc on Tybee Island 6:00pm - 7:15- Three pairs of strangers participated for 15-20 minutes each. The last pair, a couple that had been dating for a while, took some time to gather themselves and regain composure for about 45 minutes.

7:30pm - Deconstructed and headed to Sulfur Studios 8:15pm - Set up at Sulfur Studios 8:30pm - 10:30pm - Class mates tested the Friend-O-Matic after hearing our stories from the beach. Two pairs of strangers participated after seeing it on the street.

Who participated: 12 strangers, 4 friends

WHEN

WHERE

W H E N O U R P E O P L E ’ S O U R TO O K P L AC E

W H E R E O U R P E O P L E ’ S TO U R TO O K P L AC E

Date event was held: Saturday, May 20

Location of event: Tybee then Sulfur Studios

Time event was held:

Reason that location was selected:

6:00 - 7:30 and 8:15 - 10:30

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Tybee was chosen because it was the end of the day on Saturday and we thought people would be in good moods from enjoying themselves in the sun.

P R OTOT Y P I N G

WHY

INSIGHTS

T H E P E O P L E I N VO LV E D T H R O U G H T H I S E V E N T

E V E R Y T H I N G T H AT T H E E V E N T E N TA I L E D

Purpose of event: Get people of Savannah comfortable talking to each other about themselves and to build relationships with each other around town.

When more sensitive issues need to be discussed, these relationships might help people speak from a place of love and understanding.

What worked: The 36 questions were perfect conversation starters.

Most people eventually began asking their own questions.

The bright colors of the panels and chairs played a big role in attracting people.

Creating a barrier between the two participants helped alleviate self consciousness when talking about personal subjects.

What didn’t work: We didn’t stop people from meeting each other before sitting down. Participants that talked without knowing what the other looked like had a stronger connection.

MOVING FORWARD The Future:

Friend-O-Matic in a controlled environment: Policy makers would be given a set of specific questions to ask their constituents, in order to create more transparency to build trust. When used in a controlled environment, some sort of commitment made at the end could show that the policy maker is devoted to his district.

Conflict resolution: Show young adults that they have more in common than they think. Set up a Friend-O-Matic in a high school or after school program to create unlikely friendships at an early age. They might grow up and participate as citizens of Savannah with more empathy and trust in one another.

As a part of something bigger: Implement a Friend-O-Matic during Friday Art March, Monday Means Community, or the Forsyth Farmer’s Market.

Potential Partnerships:

Aldermen - Set up a Friend-O-Matic in different districts. In one chair, the alderman from a specific district sits to learn more about his constituents.

Youth - Let young adults learn more about each other, their teachers, and mentors. Build relationships between the citizens of Savannah early.

DEEP - Complete control of the Friend-O-Matic by students at the DEEP center. Learn where they think it could be most effective and what they would say to someone on the other side of the curtain.

How To: One. Build a PVC frame that is tall enough not to see over, and wide enough for the chair to sit in.

Two. Find two wooden chairs at a second hand store and paint brightly.

Three. Sew panels from donated brightly colored or

patterned material to fit in the PVC frame. The center panel has a small pocket on each side to hold the question cards.

Four. Print the question and instruction cards, shuffle, and divide between the two pockets.

Five. You build it, they will come.

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R E S U LT S

Final Thoughts + Pass it Down Each of our final concepts had its pitfalls and payoffs. Resiliency requires flexibility, and we found that each idea, whether it was the Friend-o-matic, the People’s Tour, Humans of Savannah-Chatham or the Community Board could outdo the others depending on which area and what context it was used in. All the models we created facilitated communication and empathy in some capacity, and those aspects are critical to a resilient community.

After prototyping these designs, we structured our findings into an instruction manual for parties in the future that wish

to carry out the concepts themselves. We want the benefits of our research to extend beyond our project and last long into the future.

Our 10 weeks of research, conversations, participation, observations and discovery have shown that Savannah is a place with many faces. In order to move toward a future of resiliency, Savannahians must first see and acknowledge each other, commit to communication and collectively move forward in collaboration.

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GLOSSARY

Affinitizing - gathering data and deriving insights

Natural Capital - services from soil, water, plants and air

Cultural Probe - a documentation device, such as a game or interactive installation set in a place where a desired audience can interact with it. Probes are designed to collect data about people's lives, values and thoughts that can then be incorporated into the design process

Physical Capital - new services or infrastructure

Design Principles - guidelines established by design team to guide process Design Thinking - methodology that draws upon logic, imagination, intuition and systematic reasoning to create desired outcomes that benefit the end user Empowerment - the process of becoming more able to enact positive change in one’s life Ethnography - the systematic study of people and cultures Financial Capital - money and loaning institutions How Might We - rephrasing insights and challenges as questions in order to reframe them as opportunities for design Human Centered Design - designing innovative solutions with a deep understanding of the people for whom one is designing Human Capital - new capacities and skills Insight - conclusions drawn from collected research Intellectual Capital - new knowledge and learning Metathemes - categories defined by Design Impact to recognize areas of findings around community issues and social systems 74

Primary Research - data collected firsthand Prototype - preliminary models of ideas Resilience - the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties Sacrificial Concepts - more developed prototypes that are typically produced in a group in order for Scrum - regrouping throughout design process to share new findings and shape the direction of the process Secondary Research - data collected from existing research Social Capital - increased trust and collaboration Social Engagement - participating in community or society Social Labs - platforms for addressing complex social challenges that have the three core characteristics Sustainism - new context of global connectivity, sustainability, open exchange and a focus on localization

GLOSSARY

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