Project Introduction
In partnership with local non-profit Harambee House, we embedded with the residents of Hudson Hill, a near-port community and predominantly low income African American neighborhood in West Savannah. We sought to understand the major issues, context and history of the community in order to create an effective design offering.
How might we redress issues of environmental injustice and structural inequity?
Roles: Team Lead/Project Manager, Researcher, Writer, Facilitator, Concept Development, Prototyping
2019
Methodology
Secondary Research
We conducted a thorough review of previous design interventions with Hudson Hill and Harambee House and work conducted on the EPA Care grants and near-port initiatives. Document requests from the City of Savannah and Georgia Ports Authority revealed its own history. We dug further into Hudson Hill’s history and Gullah Geechee roots, while understanding the community’s contextual issues.
Presence
Starting with walking, observing and mapping the neighborhood and surrounding areas, we began establishing a presence on day one. We attended several monthly neighborhood association meetings, community workshops, and went to Sunday services at the historic Friendship Baptist Church. We sat on porches with mamas and aunties, eating “thrills” and listening to the stories of this multi-generational community.
Workshop
We partnered with the DMGT 732 Facilitating Creative Thinking class to host a community workshop with Hudson Hill. This was a breakthrough for us. It provided an opportunity for a transparent, direct dialogue between our team and the community.
Primary Research
We conducted fifteen formal interviews with stakeholders and community members, as well as numerous informal conversations. Where we met initial resistance and distrust, we finally found a few champions who helped to open the doors to the community.
Opportunity Space
Good neighbors, not equitable partners
A seat at the table
Clear information and knowledge flows
The three most critical issues facing Hudson Hill were also the most over-arching, as they affected and contributed to every other issue. We saw an opportunity to give Hudson Hill more agency and a seat at the table with other stakeholders by building empathy amongst all parties, opening up lines of communication, and creating clear information and knowledge flows.
Design Outcome: Table Talk
We drew from our deep secondary and primary research, taking a systems approach colored by historical context and acknowledging the influence of institutions, to design a tool kit. It took multiple iterations and prototyping sessions with non-designers, Harambee House and those unfamiliar with Hudson Hill to create Table Talk.
Table Talk is a multi-stakeholder experience which uses role play interaction, collaborative problem solving, and generative communication to build effective communication channels both internally and externally. It intends to help align communities and prepare participants to address complex community problems.
Project Learnings
I learned that building trust within and genuinely investing in a community is essential. Asset Based Community Development is an effective approach to co-creation that taps into a community’s existing skills and strengths. When working in racial equity, it is always about more than just race – as it often intersects with class, gender and education. Ecosystem mapping through power dynamics enabled us to better identify leverage points and change agents within the system.
Due diligence in document requests and secondary research will provide a clearer picture when working with government entities who are towing the company line. Our role as designers is not to design for but rather with communities. Personally, this was an ongoing exercise in checking my own bias and privilege as an outsider and also battling emotional burn out. It is essential to give something back to the community at the close of work and to make good on your promises.
At the end of this project, I am not convinced that toolkits work in every context. They are useful for organizations, teams and designers who have either the structure or the existing mental models to support active use of them. For communities and non-designers, a facilitator is often required in order for toolkits to be effective.