Design4Change

Design4Change:
FOOD SECURITY CHALLENGE
4 Canadian Cities. 80 Youth. 72 Hours.

FOOD. It’s about what we eat, how we eat it, the way it is produced, and where we go to get it. Importantly, food also has the power to bring people together, sustain life, and influence our health and wellbeing. Yet even today, many Canadians are food insecure. This means that not everyone has equal access to safe, nutritious, sufficient and culturally acceptable foods. This is where the Design4Change Keg Challenge comes in.

Design4Change is a 72 hour design challenge held in 4 Keg communities across Canada over a weekend in October 2011. In the spirit of friendly competition, cooperation, and experimentation, the challenge will engage 80 young ‘Keggers’ in designing innovative, creative, and sustainable solutions that address local issues of food security. Successful designs will offer low-cost solutions that can be implemented by partner organizations within each challenge site. Examples of designs may include but are not limited to: print resources, online websites, new services, programs or educational tools aimed at promoting community health and inspiring a new relationship with food. At the end of the challenge, all solutions will be published online for anyone to use, adapt and share. Local partners will be awarded $1,000 to implement the best design.

Through this Challenge, young Canadians will enhance their knowledge about local food issues, develop teamwork skills, put their creative talents to the test, and help build healthier communities. Teams will connect, collaborate and share their stories and ideas using social media throughout the weekend so that the nation, and the world, can see how young Canadians are taking action on food insecurity.

Are YOU up for the Challenge?

BACKGROUND

Healthy, vibrant communities don’t just happen: They are designed.

Design4Change (D4C) offers young Canadians an opportunity to create positive social change by re-imagining the food system through design. Guided by local community talent, knowledge, and experience, this challenge will lead young people through a process that encourages them to think big, think local, and think creatively in order to design solutions that help improve community health and wellbeing through food. This approach to design is intended to support local innovation, while linking individual projects together to seed a network of enthusiastic and engaged youth from diverse Keg communities across Canada.

Although Canada is one the wealthiest countries in the world, 15% or 2.7 million Canadians are considered "food insecure" (1). This means that many Canadians are not sure where their next meal is coming from or if they will have enough resources to prepare a sufficient, culturally appropriate and nutritious meal for themselves or their families. According to Food Banks Canada’s HungerCount 2010 report, there were 867,948 people assisted by food banks in Canada in a one-month period (2). The reality is, that although food bank use has increased over 99% since 1989, 34.5% of food banks are having difficulty meeting the growing demand (3).

D4C seeks to sow the seeds of innovation and excitement by using something that everyone needs, loves, but knows little about (food) and designing a better way to improve the system for everyone and reduce food insecurity while increasing knowledge of its causes and consequences. This includes enhancing the entire system’s capacity to respond to the challenges posed by rising rates of obesity and chronic disease, threats to the environment, disordered eating, and food accessibility. Importantly, this is also an opportunity for Keggers to celebrate local flavors and food culture, re-invigorating their own relationships with food.

D4C aims to directly engage 80 young people ages 18-29, particularly young students and community leaders, in 4 different Keg communities from coast to coast (20 youth per site). The goal from each Challenge site will be to produce 4 to 5 youth-designed innovations that address local issues of food insecurity. Each D4C site will be awarded $1,000 for youth-driven program development for the full or partial implementation of at least one design prototype developed during the Challenge. One year following the Challenge, sites will provide updates on how the award was used. Data from D4C will be used to assess the full impact of the Challenge on the community. Several key deliverables of this challenge include all design solutions developed during the Challenge (including concept sketches, and descriptions), social media and multimedia capture (e.g., blogs, photos, videos), evaluation forms and a media release.

D4C will bring together two highly renowned organizations from the world of youth engagement and food systems for this Challenge: Youth Voices Research Group (YVRG; www.youthvoices.ca) and Meal Exchange (MX; www.mealexchange.com). These organizations draw from years of collective experience working with young people around the world and with expertise in food issues, evaluation and health education. By serving the needs of priority Keg communities in a way that is fun and supports the creative expression of young people in a sustained manner, this Keg project will ignite a leadership legacy on a topic of great importance to youth and serve as the inaugural event in a series of national Challenges that aim to create social impact through design.

(1,3) Meal Exchange. (2011). Hunger and Food Security in Canada. Accessed April 24, 2011 from URL http://tinyurl.com/3jwgw4w
(2) Food Banks Canada. (2010). HungerCount. Accessed April 24, 2011 from URL http://foodbankscanada.ca/HungerCount.htm

VISION
A healthy, equitable, and creative Canada

MISSION
To foster an active, knowledgeable and enthusiastic youth and young adult population across Canada committed to promoting health and well-being by designing creative and innovative strategies that address local issues of food insecurity

DESIGN PROCESS
This design process is inherently a social process, focusing on creating positive social change through the design of health promoting systems, environments, activities, experiences, tools and resources that aim to improve the health and wellbeing of individuals and their communities. Design is a means of consciously shaping the world around us – not just products and services. Drawing on a field of research and experience with design, several key values are put forward to guide the process:

1. EMPOWERMENT: Providing participants with knowledge, chances to develop new skills, and opportunities for taking lead and making key decisions throughout the design process.
2. RESPECT: Understanding that we all come from different backgrounds and unique life experiences that make us who we are, and honoring the diverse voices, talents, and knowledge that people bring to the table. There is no right or wrong way of thinking, doing, knowing, or feeling.
3. ENGAGEMENT: Engaging people through hands on experiences, meaningful opportunities for learning, leadership, self-expression, and skill development, and a focus on addressing social issues affecting their own communities. Participants are encouraged to determine their own goals, objectives, and indicators of success.
4. COMMUNITY: Design solutions for each Keg community should come from the community itself. Designs should consider, amplify, and respond to voices from people experiencing food insecurity and aim to strengthen relationships, resources, and supports for health, acknowledging that community members are experts in local issues.
5. EMPATHY: People learn and think in different ways by seeing, talking, writing, drawing, building, listening and trying new experiences. It’s important to explore issues with an open mind and not to restrict thinking to a particular model or structure. This involves understanding other perspectives and voices by actively listening, being non-judgmental, showing care, and building relationships with one another. An empathic process aims to heighten the emotional and functional value of the end design.

DESIGN PRINCIPLES
D4C offers youth the opportunity to learn about and take action on important local food issues for the purposes improving community health. In doing so, all designs must consider and demonstrate, wherever possible, the following principles:

1. COMPASSION: People have the ability to design new ways of doing and being that improve processes, experiences, and systems that affect human health. Design processes and outcomes should put people and their health and wellbeing at the heart of the design.
2. HEALTH EQUITY: It is important to create equal opportunities for all people to be healthy. This involves an understanding that differences in health outcomes may be unfair, avoidable and systematically related people’s different social positions and identities.
3. ‘BIG PICTURE’ THINKING: Social factors impact health at an individual, community, and systems-level. Food is a multi-layered issue and complex problem solving involves critical reflection, different approaches to thinking, and multiple solution paths. It is important for teams to think about how their designs can impact the world socially, politically, economically, culturally and physically.
4. SUSTAINABLE: Designs should attempt to strengthen community relationships, resources, and supports for health and connect community members to the appropriate health services and resources they need. Designs must meet the needs and interests of the partner organization.
5. INCLUSIVE: It is important to honor and celebrate the different ideas and perspectives of diverse members of the local community, and find creative ways to integrate these voices into the final designs.

LOCATIONS
Four Keg locations have been selected for the D4C Challenge:

Mansion Keg, Toronto ON
515 Jarvis Street

Stadium Keg, Calgary AB
1928 Uxbridge Drive

Granville Island Keg, Vancouver, BC
1499 Anderson Street

St. John's Keg, John’s NL
135 Harbour Drive

The Keg locations were chosen for many reasons, including a desire to maximize the geographic spread between Challenge sites, work in locations where partners are already based, and to reach youth from across Canada in different communities who face challenges unique to their own context. Each Keg community also brings with it assets that can be leveraged in the design of innovative solutions and program creation:

Granville Island Keg was chosen because of its proximity to nature, central location and fit among the bustling Granville Island market. There, youth can find a range of growers, meat and fish producers, and merchants interested in local and sustainable cuisine. The artistic and creative communities at Granville Island, including the Emily Carr University of Art + Design provides both an additional campus focus and a potential host for creative collaboration.

On the other side of the Rockies is Calgary’s Stadium Keg. Nestled on the Eastern side of the University of Calgary and near SAIT Polytechnic this community provides a space to explore the challenges and energies of post-secondary students seeking to develop ways to make their food system more accessible, affordable and enjoyable. Drawing on the diverse student body from both schools, the D4C initiative seeks to add more than just beef to the Cowtown experience.

Toronto is Canada’s largest and most ethnically diverse communities. The Keg Mansion, located south of St. James Town, is the most densely populated community in the country. Yet, minutes away from the urban high rises is a working farm (Riverdale Farm), vibrant farmers markets, many community gardens, and the University of Toronto. Perhaps no other place represents the diversity of the food experience than this community.

On the Easternmost point in North America lies a community with a rich history of fishing and surviving harsh weather conditions with a smile and creative cuisine. St. John’s is a Keg community that knows much about working together in good times and bad. D4C will draw on this history as youth from Newfoundland and Labrador design innovative food solutions that meet the unique geographic and cultural needs of this Keg community.

PARTICIPANTS
D4C will bring together teams of young people with diverse skills, life experiences, and points of view. Young people ages 18 to 29 and leaders from each Keg community will be invited to participate in the challenge. Teams will be led by facilitators from each partner organization. Andrea Yip MPH, a skilled project coordinator, health promotion professional, social media organizer, and Harvard-certified design charrette facilitator will oversee the entire process from beginning to end. Andrea brings years of experience as a youth engagement leader, including more than three years of direct work with food and health related issues.

PARTNERS
D4C is partnering with two highly visible community-based organizations interested in promoting better health and wellbeing of young people all across Canada through food:

Youth Voices Research Group (YVRG): A self-supported research and social innovation unit affiliated with the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. YVRG focuses on creating accessible, responsive, and health promoting systems for youth and young adults, using participatory research to help communities learn and innovate. This team has experience working in youth engagement with leading-edge action research and systems-informed methods to enable young people to have a greater voice and opportunities to lead social change efforts for a healthier society.

Meal Exchange (MX): A national student-founded, youth-driven, registered charity organized to engage, educate, and mobilize youth to work in their communities in order to alleviate hunger locally and achieve food security. MX’s vision is a country where everyone has access to safe, nutritious, affordable food.

Both of these partners have established networks of individuals and organizations working on youth, health and food systems issues including 4-H Canada, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Food Secure Canada, Ontario Agri-Food Education Inc. (OAFE), and Universities and Colleges across the country. From these networks and new partnerships formed with community-based organizations in the area of food security within each selected Keg community, a national team made up of four locally-based groups will be created. Partnerships with local, trusted organizations will allow for increased exposure of the Challenge, utilize and strengthen community resources and capacity, help ease recruitment, mitigate space and equipment needs, and offer greater opportunity for uptake and implementation of the final designs.

SOCIAL MEDIA OUTREACH
A social media strategy will be developed in order to facilitate online engagement of youth, adults, and all Keg communities from coast to coast interested in exploring local food issues through D4C. Popular social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr will be used to amplify youth voices and the message and meaning behind D4C. An integrated social media strategy before, during and after the weekend of the Challenge will offer an ongoing conversation and space for Challenge participants, supporters and partners to live tweet and share videos, photos, ideas, and reflections from across project sites. An online Challenge Countdown leading up to the event will also help generate a buzz and enable Canadians to follow the design action as it unfolds. This online presence offers an opportunity for the Keg to enhance its online outreach to the local community, particularly youth. Following the Challenge, all project ideas and presentations from each site will be shared online, allowing others to freely discuss, build upon, adapt and be inspired to take on these ideas to promote healthy change in their own communities.

YVRG is internationally recognized as a leader in social media action and community research and will draw on its experience in developing, implementing and evaluating social media strategies for health promotion to support this project. Working with youth and the MX chapters in each community, this initiative will have high visibility and draw in youth well beyond those working specifically on this project at each local site. It is that multiplier effect of social media and a purposive strategy of connecting people together through the D4C that will create a sustained movement of change beyond the D4C weekend. By mobilizing partner’s social networks offline and online, D4C aims to reach hundreds of Canadians through this single initiative.

By engaging the participants in the weekend in collecting feedback on what happens, what is produced, and how people experience the design process, the YVRG and its partners will be able to determine the impact of the D4C initiative on youth and their community. Using simple technologies like photos, video capture, short experience surveys, and observations, data from the experience in each community will be collected and compared to assess the full impact of the D4C weekend and better enable each community to share its stories of success.

This reflective process will inform the Keg (funder), partners and the community about what opportunities were created and how to adapt the design process to be used in future initiatives. Consistent with the YVRG approach to research, the findings from the D4C experience will be shared widely with the community and disseminated through its and the D4C’s social media channels (website, Facebook page, YouTube Channel, Twitter feed).

BUDGET

DESIGN WEEKEND
Facilitator honorarium (x2 for training and D4C weekend) = $1,500
Volunteers (x2) = $0
Food for participants = $500
Administration, space and equipment fees = $2,000
Supplies = $250
Award = $1,000
TOTAL COST = $5,250 per site or $21,000 for 4 sites

OTHER
Travel and accommodations = $3,500
Media/Communications = $500
Social network (Facebook Page) = $0
TOTAL = $4,000

TOTAL EXPENSES: $21,000 + $4,000 = $25,000

TIMELINE
March to October 2011 (Task or Time Period by day/month)

Application Period, 07/03 - 30/04
Partnership development, 07/03 - 16/06
Sponsorship opportunities, 07/03 - October

Evaluation Period, 01/05 - 15/05
Develop social media strategy, 07/03 – 15/05

Voting Period, 16/05 - 14/06
Garner interest and votes, 16/05 - 14/06
Implement social media strategy, 16/05 - November

Eligible Grant Recipients Notified, 23/06
Compile and complete documentation, 16/06 – 23/06

Submission of Documents, 23/06

Declaration of Grant Winners, 29/06

Program Planning, 29/06 – October
Develop Design Brief with Partners, 16/06 - November
Program development, 29/06 – October
Location visits, August & October 14-26
Participant recruitment, September
Media campaign, September – October
Staff training, August – October

CHALLENGE: October 14 to 16

Post-Event Wrap up, November

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

FRIDAY
9:00am – 9:45am: Project introduction
9:45am – 12:00pm Team Building – Group art activity
12:00pm – 1:00pm: Lunch
1:00pm – 1:30pm: Sticky note brainstorm
1:30pm – 5:00pm: Food security training and ethnographic research - Training and education in food security and research conducted by teams to explore local neighbourhood food issues through community-based activities, walkabouts, and interviews
5:00pm – 5:30pm: Check-out and debrief

Deliverables:
- Summary of research findings
- Social and multi-media capture

SATURDAY
9:00am – 9:30am: Check-in and Icebreaker
9:30am – 12:00pm: Design development - Group identifies community needs, issues, strategies, audience, and design constraints
12:00pm – 1:00pm: Lunch
1:00pm – 3:00pm: Design development - Brainstorm ways to address the problem
3:00pm – 4:00pm: Pitch sessions - Teams pitch their design ideas to the larger group
4:00pm – 5:45pm: Design development - Teams begin prototyping their designs
5:45pm – 6:00pm: Check-out - Team debrief

Deliverables:
- Final designs in the prototyping stage
- Social and multi-media capture

SUNDAY
9:00am – 9:30am: Check-in & updates
9:30am – 11:00am: Design development - Teams finalize design
11:00am – 12:00pm: Pitch sessions - Teams pitch their design ideas to the group
12:00pm – 1:00pm: Lunch
1:00pm – 2:30pm: Design development - Finalize presentations
2:30pm – 4:00pm: Final pitch session
4:00pm – 4:30pm: Check-out, debrief and evaluation
4:30pm – 6:00pm: Celebration! - Celebration at the local Keg and hand out certificates of participation

Deliverables:
- Design solutions
o Title and description
o Explanation of how the solution addresses the problem
o Concept sketches/drawings
o Recommendations for implementation and budget allocation
- Social and multi-media capture (e.g., blogs, photos, videos, testimonials)
- Media release
- Completed evaluation forms
- Certificates of Participation