AMPLIFYING CREATIVE

COMMUNITIES NEW YORK

CITY

DESIS Lab

Promoter(s)

The project Amplifying Creative Communities is funded by The Rockefeller Cultural Innovation Grant 2009 and led by The New School’s Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability Lab (DESIS Lab). Project partners are the Lower East Side Ecology Center, Greenmap Systems and IDEO and is supported by DESIS international network.

THE LOWER EAST SIDE NEIGHBORHOOD

1.1 Context

The LES is a neighborhood in the Southeastern of the NYC borough of Manhattan.

It has traditionally been an immigrant, working class neighborhood, but it has undergone rapid gentrification in recent years.

1.1 Context

Main Problem

How to retain the traditional (diverse and active) population in the LES?

How to stimulate local job creation as a possible response to gentrification and generating a new (local) social economy?

1.2 Main problem

1.3 Framework project: vision and goals

Vision

middle organizations can become amplifiers (or social innovation hubs) beyond their initial scope (e.g. environmental justice, etc)

Goals

Stop the process of gentrification

Amplyfing creative communities as a mean to retain traditional people to leave the neighborhood

1.4 Framework project: strategy

Hypothesis: Can middle organizations become amplifiers (or social innovation hubs) beyond their initial scope (e.g. environmental justice, etc)?

Creative Communities

(CC) will flourish

CC

CC

CC

CC

CC

IDEO: co-design the design toolkit for

each neighborhood

GREEN MAP

NON-PROFIT IN BROOKLYN

/QUEENS

IDEO

DESISNetwork

Green Map: digital tool for

mapping Creative Communities

Local partners in each neighborhood:

permanent hubs for the development of

new Creative Communities

DESISLab

LOWEREAST SIDEECOLOGY CENTER

Members of the DESIS Network : share expertise

and experiences, collaboration opportunities

CC

CC

CC

DESIS Archive (Europe, China, Brazil, India, Africa…

CC

CC

CC

NYCCases

1ST AMPLIFICATION

2ND AMPLIFICATION

1.5 Framework project: structure

RESEARCHING SOCIAL INNOVATION CASES IN THE LES

“snowball” research

Parsons students will research 18 cases

1.5.1 Framework project: action 1

44+ community gardens in the Lower East SideOther social innovation areas: Youth empowerment, Housing, Food, Info sharing, Commodities exchange/sharing,

GREEN MAPPINGSOCIAL INNOVATION CASES IN THE LES

1.5.2 Framework project: action 2

Design Toolkit:Resource base for the local community organization

1.5.3 Framework project: action 3

1.5. Framework project: action 4

Communicating

Creative Communities

(CC) will flourish

CC

CC

CC

CC

CC

IDEO: co-design the design toolkit for

each neighborhood

GREEN MAP

NON-PROFIT IN BROOKLYN

/QUEENS

IDEO

DESISNetwork

Green Map: digital tool for

mapping Creative Communities

Local partners in each neighborhood:

permanent hubs for the development of

new Creative Communities

DESISLab

LOWEREAST SIDEECOLOGY CENTER

Members of the DESIS Network : share expertise

and experiences, collaboration opportunities

CC

CC

CC

DESIS Archive (Europe, China, Brazil, India, Africa…

CC

CC

CC

NYCCases

1ST AMPLIFICATION

2ND AMPLIFICATION

1.6 Framework project: timeline

Current framework progress

2. Local project: examples

1.

2.

Green Oasis Garden

Next step: The Lower East Side Girls Club

2.1 Framework project: Local project 1

Started in 1981.Ex-marine lived next to abandoned lot. With a group of friends cleared the lot and began a garden.

Based on two goals: to create a place to celebrate the arts, and to provide a healthy environment for neighborhood children.

Green Oasis Garden

Context

Located in LES a neighborhood in the Southeastern of the NYC borough of Manhattan.

Boundaries as source of controversy

Gentrification

2.2 Local project 1: context and main problem

Main problem

There is no “typical user.” The user group has changed a lot over the years. With changing ethnicities in the area, community interaction with the garden has changed.

Make visible the smaller organized activities and the non –organized activities.

2.3 Local project 1: vision and goals

Goal

Understand the communityFix the community beyond its heroAmplifying the community at the scale of the territory

Vision

Introduce the community in a amplification process that will lead to make it visible, indipendent, accessible and stable.

2.4 Local project 1: the strategy

Hypothesis: Can LESEC become the amplifier (or social innovation hubs) beyond itsinitial scope (e.g. environmental justice, etc)?

2.4 Local projects: strategy

2.5 Next step

The Girls Club has programs to build “ethical,” entrepreneurial and environmental awareness.

The organization gives young girls and teens job training.

The Lower East Side Girls Club

THANK YOU!!!

Francesca.rizzo@polimi.it

3. Design role

3.1 context analysis

Design workshop

Interactive green map

International cases

Social innovation cases: Community gardens

Below the radar innovations: the heroes

Exhibiting: a dialogue with local residents about local and international social innovations

Exhibiting: a dialogue with local residents about local and international social innovations

3.2 Co-design tools and activities

five main areas with multiple activities and tools for different users and skills

Tools For

•Observing•Communicating •Starting Up •Engaging •Synergizing •Mobilizing

Tools for whom?

•Ordinary People•Community Based Organizations (CBOs)•Specially Trained Experts/ Network of Trained Experts•Designers •Design Schools/Students/Researchers (DESIS Network)• …

How to balance the use of media and technology according to the potential user?

•High-tech vs Low-tech?•… vs …?

3.2 Toolkit design

5a. SYNERGYZING

3. STARTING UP

5b. MOBILIZING

2. COMMUNICATING

1. OBSERVING

ACTIVATINGBONDING

SPREADING

INCUBATINGMODELLING

UNDERSTANDING

4. ENGAGINGINVOLVING

NETWORKING

Toolkit 5 Areas

• Training• Customizing

• Guiding• Wayfinding• Exhibiting

• Finding• Assessing• Documenting• Archiving

• Sharing• Integrating

• Designing• Replicating• Training• Coaching• Funding

• Motivating• Empowering

5a. SYNERGYZING

3. STARTING UP

5b. MOBILIZING

2. COMMUNICATING

1. OBSERVING

ACTIVATINGBONDING

SPREADING

INCUBATINGMODELLING

UNDERSTANDING

4. ENGAGINGINVOLVING

NETWORKING

Toolkit 5 Areas & Activities

Toolkit:Resource base for the local community organization

Locast

Locast Civic Media is a mobile & web platform to engage citizenship in the process of collecting, reporting and disseminating news and information related to the urban environment.

OBSERVING | Tools

Diaries

Self reporting observation activities aiming to capture the subjective experience of a person in a specific situation or in his/her everyday life, by using traditional diaries, notebooks and camera. User diaries is a design tool to gain insight into patterns of behavior.

OBSERVING | Tools

311 Online

311 is New York City's online Web site and phone number for government information and non-emergency services.

COMMUNICATING | Tools

COMMUNICATING | Tools

Not For Tourists

Not For Tourists is a growing series of guides to major cities. Unlike traditional tourist guide books, NFT guides are designed for people who live in or commute to their subject cities.

Instructables

Web-based documentation platform where people share what they do and how they do it, and learn from and collaborate with others.

STARTING UP | Tools

STARTING UP | Tools

Start-Up Packages

STARTING UP | Tools

Service blueprint

A tool for simultaneously depicting the service process, the points of user contact, and the evidence of the service from the user’s point of view.

Skillshare

A temporary space for sharing practical skills and communal hands-on reciprocal learning experiences.

SYNERGIZING | Tools

Door-to-Door

A sales technique in which a salesperson walks from one door of a house to another trying to sell a product or service to the general public.

MOBILIZING | Tools

Social Networks

A network of trusted contacts

ENGAGING | Tools