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A University of the Arts Master of Industrial Design thesis exploring the impact of design on urban social capital and time banking.
Citation preview
Andy Grossman
Published by
211 South Broad Street, 5th FloorPhiladelphia, PA 19102
Copyright © 2011
Josh Chadwick
Walnut Hill Connect
Approved by
advisor Imanni Wilkes advisor Lorna Peterson
committee chair Allen Glicksman director Jonas Milder
Submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for degree of Master of Industrial Design at The University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA by Josh Chadwick and Andy Grossman.
211 South Broad Street, 5th FloorPhiladelphia, PA 19102
Copyright © 2011
We’d like to extend gratitude to our committee members and the Walnut Hill community for their continued support during this project.
Special Thanks
Copyright © 2011 by Josh Chadwick and Andy GrossmanIllustrations copyright © 2011 by Josh Chadwick and Andy Grossman
Photography credits:Page 13, © 2011 Allen Glicksman, Lorna Peterson and Imanni Wilkes; Page 18 © 2011Rick Kaempfer/Just One Bad Century; Pages 22, 23 © 2011 GenPhilly; Page 25, © 2011 Time Out Respite Program/Temple University; Page 32 © 2011Roman Krznaric; Page 33 © 2011 New York Times; Page 47 © 2011Google Images; Pages 60, 61 © 2011 Threadless; Page 78 © 2011 Deng-Shun Chang
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced–mechanically, electronically, or by any other means, including photocopying–without written permission of the publisher.
Cover design by Josh ChadwickBook design by Josh Chadwick and Andy Grossman
Masters of Industrial Design at The University of the Arts212 South Broad Street, 5th FloorPhiladelphia, PA 19102
First printing May 2011
09 Introduction17 Research35 Define53 Synthesis57 Prototype71 Observe75 Evaluate79 Reflection84 Sources
Table of Contents
11
Modern urban neighborhoods fail to foster social capital that will encourage a “healthy lifestyle” beyond the age of 65. A “healthy lifestyle” for someone older than 65 should include continued social engagement and activity with their surrounding community. The benefits of community engagement have a direct positive impact on a senior’s psychological and physical well-being. As we age, our need for close relationships within a community becomes more apparent, as well as our need for support as our physical capabilities start to diminish. An emotionally healthy and balanced level of closeness can provide this sort of support. Fifty years ago such support stemmed from family members, but today, as families have become less rooted geographically, the elderly can no longer expect to rely on them. It
is increasingly important that we have community engagement and support in our surrounding friends and neighbors.
The Time Bank is working with Walnut Hill, a Philadelphia neighborhood, to create the community infrastructure needed to bring about these connections. However, even with their communtiy-focused local efforts, the Time Bank contends with isolated, distrusting residents, who fear for their safety and frequently relocate. As designers, we worked with the Walnut Hill Time Bank to assess their operations and give them tools with the purpose of helping them connect with residents. These tools aimed to help the Time Bank communicate and function in a manor that the residents were accustomed to and gave residents the ability to be independently responsible for the Time Bank’s promotion and success.
Introduction
12
13
What is ourdesign process?Much like other fields of design, Human Centered Design hinges on a process and set of core values. Without these values, the chance of a successful outcome is significantly diminished. The design process should include stakeholders with varying expertise to draw from. Integrating a variety of perspectives into this process both broadens and strengthens the foundation of the resulting design. Designers have skills and knowledge that is pivotal to the process, but rarely are they experts on everything that the project requires. For this thesis, we set out to promote senior independence in Philadelphia. Yet neither of us were experts in gerontological studies, city planning, community development or senior care; expertise would demand years of study. Instead, we connected with and leveraged networks of existing professionals who could contribute their expertise to our efforts.
The title “expert” is not limited to professionals: some more knowledgeable experts on a given topic are the end users. In this case we’re referring to neighborhood seniors and other community members. Keeping the audience involved in the design process and generating feedback directly impacts the success of a project.
It’s important for designers to communicate their ideas as they evolve. Guarding your ideas runs the risk of isolating them from feedback until it’s too late to make corrections. Instead, designers should publicize their ideas, gather critical feedback and adjust their design accordingly. Publicity can be as simple as illustrating an idea and asking for feedback, or as complex as creating a full-scale prototype for user testing.
The steps of the design process are just as critical as the values themselves. The design process is most easily represented linearly, but in reality the process is organic and can pass through each stage as needed. Consequently, the design process is iterative and rarely has a definitive end.
Research: A project begins by gathering information. Expertise is not required, however the information should be sufficient to have a solid understanding of the subject.
Define: As information is collected and your understanding evolves, so should the focus and goals of the project: its outline is thereby continuously informed by research.
Synthesize: It is important to digest complex and disparate sets of information, process it and present it in a manner that is clear and easily accessible. Synthesis allows the designers to draw connections between separate sources of information, revealing points of entry for interventions.
Prototype: Designers conceptualize tools or artifacts to address the points of entry they’ve discovered. They prototype their concepts so they can test them in “real world” scenarios. If designers don’t prototype their ideas, then they remain theoretical and lack the potential to have a meaningful impact.
Observe: In tandem with prototyping, a designer should take the time to observe the quality of their product.
Evaluate: Documenting these observations allows the designer to gauge the quality and impact of the design. This reveals whether or not the process warrants another iteration.
14
Through out all forms of design there is a push to think innovatively. Striving for innovation has advantages when solving complex problems. This motivation encourages designers to look in new directions and draw inspiration from unexplored sources.
Innovative Vision
The best way to quickly understand a complex concept is with visual cues. Whether a designer is presenting a design proposal, or distilling research into palatable kernels of information, they use visual aids to facilitate this process. This helps designers process information and clearly present what the audience needs to understand their message.
Visualization
Designers are trained to embrace working with others. They recognize that they will never hold the answers to all of the questions they face on a project. This prepares them to look outward to find the people who possess the knowledge that the projects needs.
Collaboration
Rarely do designers work on projects where they are also the target audience. They are on the outside looking in and they need to relate to what the audience is feeling, thinking and wanting. While this can be challenging, it also gives designers a unique opportunity to say what the audience is afraid to, or possibly even unaware they want to say.
External Voice
A designer’s ideas exists in a metaphorical vacuum unless they’re shared in a compelling way. By telling stories we relate our ideas in human terms and with human impact. These stories allow others to internalize the creative vision and imagine using our ideas themselves.
Story Telling
What does a designer bring to the table?
15
Allen GlicksmanDirector of Research and Evaluation: Planning Department, Philadelphia Corporation for Aging.
Lorna PetersonProject Manager: The Walnut Hill Street Team, The Enterprise Center Community Development Corporation.
Imanni WilkesManaging Director: Community Empowerment, The Enterprise Center Community Development Corporation.
As we researched senior care and community development, we formed connections with professionals in Philadelphia whose knowledge in their field of study proved beneficial to our project. The feedback we received from these contacts helped focus our project so that it would have real context and real life benefits. Of the people we reached out to, a few pledged their skills and knowledge to the success of this project, serving as academic advisers.
Who are our “experts?”
16
month
Project Timeline
research
observation
interview
mapping
visualize
brainstorming
analysis
prototype
November December January February
ThesisPartnership
DepartmentPresentation
Block CaptainMeeting
ThesisDeclaration
Join GenPhillyNetwork
Time OutRespite Program
AdvisorMeeting
DepartmentCritique
17
March April May
DocumentationSubmission
Street TeamCanvasing
Time OutRespite Program
Street TeamCanvasing
Street TeamPrototypePresentation
Block CaptainPrototypePresentation
Walnut HillMixer
ExhibitionOpener
Meeting withSuperfluid
MeetingWith Allen
Building Community with Time Dollars
Part of a Series from theTechnical Assistance ResourceCenter of the Annie E. CaseyFoundation and the Center for the Study of Social Policy
A M A KI N G C O N N E C T I O N S P E E R T E C H N I CA L A S S I STA N C E M ATC H B ET W E E N
DES MOINES, IOWA; INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA; SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS;
EL PASO, TEXAS; AND WASHINGTON, DCP E E R T E C H N I CA L A S S I STA N C E L EA DS TO AC T I O N
M A KI N G CON N EC T I O N S
page 1
Transformative Services and Transformation
DesignDaniela Sangiorgi
ImaginationLancaster, Lancaster University
Abstract
This paper claims how the parallel evolution of the conception of services and of Design for
Services toward more transformational aims, would require a collective reflection on and
elaboration of guiding methodological and deontological principles. By illustrating
connections with similar evolutions in Participatory Design (from ‘Design for use before use’
to ‘Design for Design after Design’), Public Health Research (patient engagement and
‘empowerment’) and Consumer Research (Transformative Consumer Research), the author
identifies key characteristics of transformative practices that ask for more ‘reflexivity’ on the
designers’ side. Developing Design profession as contributing to society transformative aims
is extremely valuable, but it carries with it also a huge responsibility. Designers, the author
argues, need to reflect not only on how to conduct transformative processes, but also on
which transformations they are aiming to, why, and in particular for the benefit of whom.
KEYWORDS: transformative services, transformation design, Design for Services
Introduction
At its onset Service Design has been looking at services as a different kind of ‘products’,
exploring modes to deal with the differentiating service qualities (originally thoughts as
deficiencies) such as Intangibility, Heterogeneity, Inseparability, and Perishability.
The design debate then made one step forward when acknowledging the nature of services
as complex and relational entities, that include products, and that can’t be fully designed and
pre-determined (Sangiorgi, 2004). The focus on service interactions has been opening up to
considering interactions within and among organisations, working on systems and networks,
while designers have been increasingly approaching issues of organisational and behavioural
change (Sangiorgi, 2009). In this evolution Design for Services, instead of Service Design,
IRDES - Association Loi de 1901 - 10 rue Vauvenargues - 75018 Paris - Tél. : 01 53 93 43 00 - Fax : 01 53 93 43 50 - www.irdes.fr
Document de travailWorking paper
Social Capital and Health of Older EuropeansFrom Reverse Causality to Health Inequalities
Nicolas Sirven (Irdes)Thierry Debrand (Irdes)
Février 2011DT n° 40
Institut de recherche et documentation en économie de la santé
No copying allowed in other websites, but direct link to the document is authorized: http://www.irdes.fr/EspaceAnglais/Publications/WorkingPapers/DT40SocialCapitalHealthOlderEuropeans.pdf
RED PAPER 01HEALTH:Co-creatingServicesHilary Cottam and
Charles Leadbeater
The Design Council has established RED, a new unit
challenging accepted thinking on economic and social
issues through design innovation.
We run rapid live projects in order to develop new thinking
and practical design solutions in the form of systems,
services and products. Our team is inter-disciplinary
including designers, policy analysts and sector experts.
Our approach is human centred, involving users, business
and service providers in the design process. RED papers
will explore a wide range of issues that make a link to our
practice.www.designcouncil.org.uk/RED
This paper looks at the new challenges facing public
services, taking health as a case study. Chronic disease
presents a new and growing health challenge.This paper
argues that reform to the health services currently on
offer cannot address either the management of chronic
diseases or the broader lifestyle issues that might promote
better health.We argue for a new approach which we call
co-creation since a set of new relationships between users,
workers and professionals lies at its heart.We set out this
model. Many of the seeds of this new approach can be
found within the current system. Communities of the kind
we envisage are well developed in software and other fields.
We suggest ways in which we could build on these open
systems to foster a new form of co-created public service.
Our ideas should be considered as work in progress: we
hope to develop our model further as we test our approach
in practice with partners in Kent and Bolton.
RE
D PA
PE
R 01
HE
ALT
H: C
o-cre
ating S
ervice
s
Hilary C
ottam
and C
harles Leadb
eater
Hilary Cottam is a Director of the Design Council and leads the RED
team. Previous projects include a radical re-think of the prison system
and a new approach to designing schools. Prior to joining the Design
Council Hilary set up two companies and worked for the World Bank.
Charles Leadbeater is an independent author and public policy
adviser and a RED Associate, who has written widely on innovation
within public services. His pamphlets Personalisation Through
Participation and The Pro-Am Revolution are published by Demos.
The Design Council enhances prosperity and well-being in the UK by
campaigning for the best use of design in business and the public sector.
We are champions for the benefits of design.
Design Council
34 Bow Street
London WC2E 7DL
United Kingdom
Phone +44 (0)20 7420 5200
Email [email protected]
www.designcouncil.org.uk
© November 2004
Charity number 272099
ISBN 1-904335-11-X
RED cover 12/11/04 12:49 p
m Page 1
Engagement of the Elderly in Time Banking:
The Potential for Social Capital Generation in an Aging Society*
Ed Collom
University of Southern Maine
Abstract
Community currency systems attempt to empower the economically marginalized and build
social capital. This research explores the role of the elderly in a local voluntary organization.
The elderly are potentially very important contributors, yet we know little about their
participation in these local exchange networks. Eighty-seven months worth of transaction data
from a “Time Bank” which has had a total of 950 members is examined in social network
analyses. Measures of quantitative engagement in the system are constructed. The elderly are
found to be as active as other members. Qualitative characteristics of the network are also
explored. The organization is rather homogeneous, yet exchanges within it tend to connect
diverse actors. Male and female seniors under-transact with themselves and with one another,
generating bridging social capital. The evidence presented suggests that the participation of the
elderly in local currencies is mutually beneficial.
* While the Time Bank studied here will remain anonymous, I would like to thank the coordinator, former executive
director, and software programmer for all of their assistance. Also, thanks to Bob Hanneman, John Baugher, the
anonymous reviewers, and the Editor for all of their useful feedback on the paper. An earlier version of this paper
was presented at the 100th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, August 13-16, 2005,
Philadelphia PA. Direct correspondence to: Ed Collom, Department of Sociology, 96 Falmouth Street, P.O. Box
9300, University of Southern Maine, Portland, ME 04104-9300 ([email protected]).
Fall 2005
18
Time Banks
by Anna Afshar
Federal Reserve
Bank of Boston
A 2001 article by Sue Halpern in
Mother Jones magazine tells the story
of an Ivory Coast immigrant who
assimilated faster than others because
of his involvement in a form of
exchange called time banking.
Giving and Receiving
Dig
ital V
isio
n/G
etty
Imag
es
in the Nonmonetary Economy:
David Boyle, Time Banks UK Grassroots Initiatives for Sustainable Development 10 June 2005
1
Sustainability and social assets: the potential of time banks and co-production David Boyle
The first thing to say is that I intend to interpret sustainable development pretty
broadly. It is, of course, about meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs.1 I want to relate the
time bank phenomenon to this, and I should first explain why I think a community
mutual support system is directly relevant to a concept that some people regard as
being exclusively about wind farms and otters. There are two reasons. First, because time banks are a system that can measure and
reward the efforts that people make to behave in a sustainable way – both with
recycling and with consumption patterns too. They also point the way towards similar
systems on a different scale that might also be very much more effective in this.2
The second is that sustainability as a concept applies just as much to human ecology
as it does to the planet’s eco-systems. The way the economy is organised, and the
social pressures on families, are undermining the support systems that prevent crime,
keep people healthy or educate children in the broadest sense.3 Our efforts to scrape
together mortgage payments for the present, and our failure to understand some of the
social drawbacks of full employment, for example, mean that our children may not
have the peaceful neighbourhoods that we enjoyed when we were brought up.
The communitarian pioneer Amitai Etzioni uses the example of a driver called Rod
Grimm.4 Grimm is “an American truck driver who delivers loads from coast to coast,
specifically from Los Angeles to Maine. He is part of the ‘just in time’ system. If his
load of frozen shrimps is not delivered on schedule, restaurants will be forced to shut
down. He is on the road 340 days a year, so his wife moved in with him and they now
practically live in the cabin of the truck. Meals are taken at truck stops, or eaten while
driving. Friendships are reduced largely to casual encounters with other truckers at
gas pumps. Rod’s only child has been left with a succession of babysitters since she
was six years old; birthdays are marked by calls on Grimm’s cellphone.”
Etzioni compares the story to that of Phineas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days,
where the engine runs out of coal on the last stretch, and Fogg uses the furnishings
and the carriages as fuel instead.5 Rod Grimm is an example of social unsustainability and what I’m going to say about
time banks is particularly relevant to that. But there is another way in which time banks – and indeed, any community currency
system – is relevant to sustainable development. It is the insight that conventional
money does not describe the world very effectively: that there are real assets in
neighbourhoods – just as there are in the ecosystem – which conventional money
values do not recognise. They might be the ozone layer or they might be forests –
both of which, though valueless in money terms, are critical to life and economy
Community Development Journal Vol 39 No 1 January 2004 pp. 62–71
62
© 2004 Oxford University Press and Community Development JournalTime banks: rewardingcommunity self-help in the inner city?
Gill Seyfang
Abstract Time banks are new community-based initiatives in the UK that use time
as a unit of local currency. Participants give and receive help in exchange
for time credits. Reciprocal volunteering, community participation and
active citizenship are encouraged, particularly for the socially excluded
who normally volunteer least. The findings of case study research with
an inner city time bank from Glasgow in Scotland are presented, to
assess their role and potential as tools for promoting community develop-
ment and overcoming social exclusion. The paper concludes with a
summary of important lessons learned for practitioners, and policy
recommendations to help them to achieve their objectives.
IntroductionAs a nation we’re rich in many things, but perhaps our greatest wealth
lies in the talent, the character and the idealism of the millions of people
who make their communities work. Everyone – however rich or poor –
has time to give . . . Let us give generously, in the two currencies of time
and money. (Blair, 2000)In his speech at a conference on volunteering organized by the UK govern-
ment’s Active Community Unit (ACU) quoted above, Prime Minister Tony
Blair stresses the need for informal mutual support, volunteering and com-
munity self-help, to grow strong communities and build capacity for
regeneration among deprived neighbourhoods. Voluntary activity is a key
element of active citizenship and regeneration in New Labour’s strategy for
tackling social exclusion (SEU, 2001). The benefits to volunteers are personal
development, confidence-building, forging social networks and gaining
skills, all of which contribute to job-readiness for the unemployed, and to
social inclusion (PAT 9, 1999).Imaginative and resourceful initiatives are required to harness voluntary
activities for community development and social inclusion, finding new
means of rewarding volunteering (PIU, 2000). This paper examines the
07 39(1) Seyfang (ad/d) 9/12/03 10:19 am Page 62
Published: September 1, 2000
Last Updated: October 25, 2007
Product Type: National Program Report
Grant ID: SCR
Service Credit Banking in Managed Care
An RJWF national p
rogram
SUMMARY
Service credit banking programs seek to help elderly people remain healthy, independent,
and in their homes by enlisting volunteer caregivers to
provide supportive services, such
as transportation, medication monitoring, shopping and light housekeeping. As an
incentive, each caregiver receives credits that can be redeemed for sim
ilar volunteer
services.
Service Credit Banking in Managed Care, which ran from 1992 to 1999, tested the
efficacy of the service credit banking concept.
The program helped fund and develop a prototype pilot project, the Rocky Mountain
Health Maintenance Organization in Grand Junction, Colo., and five replication projects
at other managed care organizations.
Key Results
● Ultimately, most of the service credit banking projects at the managed care
organizations were unable to meet either of the challenges that prompted RWJF to
launch the program: financial sustainability and information management.
● Facing decreasing profits and, in some cases, organizational upheaval, four of the five
managed care organizations abandoned their service credit banking projects.
— Two ceased providing Medicare coverage altogether, and a third substantially
scaled back its coverage.
— Only the Rocky Mountain Health Maintenance Organization and Blue Shield of
California maintained their service credit banking operations beyond the end of
1999.
● The program did not determine whether earning service credits is a meaningful
incentive for volunteers or whether service credit banking programs can produce
savings that offset their administrative costs.
Click here for a list of projects in
this national program.
The role of social and built environments in predicting self-rated stress:A multilevel analysis in Philadelphia
Tse-Chuan Yang a,n, Stephen A. Matthews b
a The Social Science Research Institute, The Population Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, 803 Oswald Tower, University Park, PA 16801, USAb Department of Sociology, The Population Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, 601 Oswald Tower, University Park, PA 16801, USA
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 22 September 2009
Received in revised form
19 March 2010
Accepted 2 April 2010
Keywords:
Self-rated stress
Built environment
Multilevel analysis
Philadelphia
a b s t r a c t
Most studies of the predictors of stress focus on individual characteristics. Linking multiple contextual
data sources to an individual-level health survey, we explore the associations of both built and social
environment determinants with self-rated stress. At the individual level few social factors were
significant predictors, although neighborhood trust and food insecurity have independent effects on
stress. At the neighborhood level, the presence of hazardous waste sites and traffic volume were
determinants of self-rated stress even after controlling for other individual characteristics. The latter
two factors are of relevance to public health policy as they are potentially modifiable.
& 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Biological stress was first defined in the 1930s (Selye, 1936). Itoriginally referred to a syndrome occurring in laboratory rats andgradually evolved into a concept of understanding the interactionbetween individuals and their environment (Viner, 1999). Today,stress is implicated in a wide range of social and health outcomes,such as cardiovascular diseases (Black and Garbutt, 2002;Kristensen, 1996), cancers (Helgesson et al., 2003), deviantbehaviors (Wills et al., 2002), depression (Maddock and Pariante,2001), and biological reactions (Tausk et al., 2008).
The environment should play a crucial role in determiningstress (Kasl, 1984). Several recent studies have concluded that theneighborhood etiological factors for mental health, stress, anddepression in particular, have been underexplored (Cutrona et al.,2006; Kim, 2008). Specifically, relatively little is known about theeffects of the built environment (both resources and risks)in a neighborhood on mental health. The proliferation ofgeospatial data and techniques to analyze such data coupled withdevelopments in multilevel modeling, however, has facilitatedanalysis of the relationships between neighborhood character-istics and health-related outcomes. The array of neighborhoodcharacteristics available for analysis has allowed researchers to becreative vis-�a-vis their inclusion of explanatory factors.Researchers are no longer tied to decennial census variables but
can draw on land use, crime, transportation, and infrastructuraldatabases. Our goal was to add to the stress research literatureby integrating readily available geospatial information on thesocial and built environment with individual survey data and toconduct a multilevel analysis. To frame our analysis we firstreview the literature to explore potential ecological determinantsof stress.
1.1. Stress in different residential locations: built environment
Since the 1960s, the literature has reported the connectionsbetween social status variables and mental health problems(Turner and Marino, 1994). These connections are seen in thevariations in the experience of individuals of divergent socio-economic characteristics (social causation) rather than as anoutcome of selecting individuals into different social positions(social selection) based on their mental health status (Aneshensel,1992; Turner et al., 1995). Explicitly then, individual-levelcharacteristics, such as marriage (Ross, 1989; Shields, 2004;Turner and Lloyd, 1999; Turner and Marino, 1994; Turner et al.,1995), employment (Jin et al., 1995; Larocco et al., 1980; Pearlinet al., 1981; Tennant, 2001), and socioeconomic status (Shields,2004; Turner and Marino, 1994; Turner et al., 1995), arefundamental individual-level determinants of stress.
In addition to individual features, environments shouldcontribute to stress assessment (Kasl, 1984). Social stress research,however, has not focused on how the built environment contributesto stress (Ahlberg et al., 2003; Carlsson et al., 2006; Silverman et al.,1987; Thoits, 1995). Perceived threats to personal health can result
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/healthplace
Health & Place
1353-8292/$ - see front matter & 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.healthplace.2010.04.005
n Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 814 865 5553; fax: +1 814 863 8342.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (T.-C. Yang), [email protected]
(S.A. Matthews).
Health & Place 16 (2010) 803–810
IJCCR Vol 6 (2002) 3 Seyfang
1 of 11
Tackling social exclusion with community
currencies: learning from LETS to Time
Banks
Dr Gill Seyfang*
Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE)
and Overseas Development Group
University of East Anglia
Norwich NR4 7TJ
+44 (0)1603 592956
International Journal of Community Currency Research
2002: Volume 6
ISSN 1325-9547
* Dr Gill Seyfang is a Senior Research Associate in sustainable consumption in the Centre for
Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE), and the Overseas
Development Group, at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
The author is grateful to Time Banks UK and the organisers and participants of the case study time
banks for their cooperation with, and enthusiasm for this research. Thanks also to the Economic and
Social Research Council for funding this project (grant no R000223453).
~
As a nation weíre rich in many things, but perhaps our greatest wealth lies in the
talent, the character and the idealism of the millions of people who make their
communities work. Everyone ñ however rich or poor ñ has time to give Ö Let us
give generously, in the two currencies of time and money.Blair (2000)
INTRODUCTION
Inequality, relative poverty, and social exclusion are growing in the UK at the dawn of the third millennium (Hills,
1998). The economic and social effects of global economic restructuring have been disastrous for many localities, and
increasing labour market casualisation and flexibilisation has reduced job security for many (Crompton et al, 1996).
Social inclusion and neighbourhood renewal have become policy buzz-words of the UKís New Labour government at
the dawn of the 21st century. Social inclusion is here understood to refer to the ability to exercise social, economic and
political citizenship rights, and social exclusion is the denial of those rights. Economic citizenship refers to the ability
and opportunity to earn income from engaging in productive work, to have oneís needs met, and to build links with
the formal economy. Social citizenship is the ability to take part in community-building and social networks for
friendships and mutual support, and bridging social divides. Finally, political citizenship is the ability and opportunity
to influence decisions which affect oneís life, and to join in collective effort to challenge inequitable social structures
19
David Boyle, Time Banks UK Grassroots Initiatives for Sustainable Development 10 June 2005
1
Sustainability and social assets: the potential of time banks and co-production David Boyle
The first thing to say is that I intend to interpret sustainable development pretty
broadly. It is, of course, about meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs.1 I want to relate the
time bank phenomenon to this, and I should first explain why I think a community
mutual support system is directly relevant to a concept that some people regard as
being exclusively about wind farms and otters. There are two reasons. First, because time banks are a system that can measure and
reward the efforts that people make to behave in a sustainable way – both with
recycling and with consumption patterns too. They also point the way towards similar
systems on a different scale that might also be very much more effective in this.2
The second is that sustainability as a concept applies just as much to human ecology
as it does to the planet’s eco-systems. The way the economy is organised, and the
social pressures on families, are undermining the support systems that prevent crime,
keep people healthy or educate children in the broadest sense.3 Our efforts to scrape
together mortgage payments for the present, and our failure to understand some of the
social drawbacks of full employment, for example, mean that our children may not
have the peaceful neighbourhoods that we enjoyed when we were brought up.
The communitarian pioneer Amitai Etzioni uses the example of a driver called Rod
Grimm.4 Grimm is “an American truck driver who delivers loads from coast to coast,
specifically from Los Angeles to Maine. He is part of the ‘just in time’ system. If his
load of frozen shrimps is not delivered on schedule, restaurants will be forced to shut
down. He is on the road 340 days a year, so his wife moved in with him and they now
practically live in the cabin of the truck. Meals are taken at truck stops, or eaten while
driving. Friendships are reduced largely to casual encounters with other truckers at
gas pumps. Rod’s only child has been left with a succession of babysitters since she
was six years old; birthdays are marked by calls on Grimm’s cellphone.”
Etzioni compares the story to that of Phineas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days,
where the engine runs out of coal on the last stretch, and Fogg uses the furnishings
and the carriages as fuel instead.5 Rod Grimm is an example of social unsustainability and what I’m going to say about
time banks is particularly relevant to that. But there is another way in which time banks – and indeed, any community currency
system – is relevant to sustainable development. It is the insight that conventional
money does not describe the world very effectively: that there are real assets in
neighbourhoods – just as there are in the ecosystem – which conventional money
values do not recognise. They might be the ozone layer or they might be forests –
both of which, though valueless in money terms, are critical to life and economy
Across academic journals, sociological studies and other research sources, several themes emerged as they relate to our thesis. Among these themes there is a clear correlation between mental well being and independence; social class and health; happiness and social recreation
and co-equal investment in mutually beneficial endeavors. Put another way, the likelihood of social capital (see page 28) to succeed is linked directly to the soundness of the social networks already in place.
Research
IJCCR Vol 6 (2002) 3 Seyfang
1 of 11
Tackling social exclusion with community
currencies: learning from LETS to Time
Banks
Dr Gill Seyfang*
Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE)
and Overseas Development Group
University of East Anglia
Norwich NR4 7TJ
+44 (0)1603 592956
International Journal of Community Currency Research
2002: Volume 6
ISSN 1325-9547
* Dr Gill Seyfang is a Senior Research Associate in sustainable consumption in the Centre for
Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE), and the Overseas
Development Group, at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
The author is grateful to Time Banks UK and the organisers and participants of the case study time
banks for their cooperation with, and enthusiasm for this research. Thanks also to the Economic and
Social Research Council for funding this project (grant no R000223453).
~
As a nation weíre rich in many things, but perhaps our greatest wealth lies in the
talent, the character and the idealism of the millions of people who make their
communities work. Everyone ñ however rich or poor ñ has time to give Ö Let us
give generously, in the two currencies of time and money.Blair (2000)
INTRODUCTION
Inequality, relative poverty, and social exclusion are growing in the UK at the dawn of the third millennium (Hills,
1998). The economic and social effects of global economic restructuring have been disastrous for many localities, and
increasing labour market casualisation and flexibilisation has reduced job security for many (Crompton et al, 1996).
Social inclusion and neighbourhood renewal have become policy buzz-words of the UKís New Labour government at
the dawn of the 21st century. Social inclusion is here understood to refer to the ability to exercise social, economic and
political citizenship rights, and social exclusion is the denial of those rights. Economic citizenship refers to the ability
and opportunity to earn income from engaging in productive work, to have oneís needs met, and to build links with
the formal economy. Social citizenship is the ability to take part in community-building and social networks for
friendships and mutual support, and bridging social divides. Finally, political citizenship is the ability and opportunity
to influence decisions which affect oneís life, and to join in collective effort to challenge inequitable social structures
The Chicago Heat Wave of 1995
20
Chicago community areas
Highest heat-related death rate
Highest percentage of persons below poverty level
Highest violent crime rates
Highest percentage of aged persons living alone
During the Chicago heat wave of 1995, from July 11th to July 17th, approximately 750 heat-related deaths were reported. The temperature peaked on July 13th at 106 °F to set the second hottest temperature in July since records began. The peak heat index was 119 °F at O’Hare Airport and 125 °F at Midway Airport. Hospital admissions were up 11% that week and senior-admissions were up 35%. High crime rates, poverty rates, and a large number of elderly persons living alone were all factors that contributed to heat-related deaths. High concentrations of fatalities where seen from individuals residing in areas where these factors overlapped.
Whereas some Chicagoans had friends on whom to rely, some seniors who lived alone literally baked in their homes. The majority of these isolated seniors were men, less inclined to call upon neighbors or friends than single women of the same age group. Communities with socially engaged residents were more likely to help each other in this time of need; so much so that even those who were socially isolated from the community but were geographically connected felt the support of the community.
21
2222
Environmental factors aren’t the only threat to people as they age. It follows that we become less physically able as our bodies age. 13.2 million seniors suffer a fall each year and more than half of those falls occur in the home, accounting for ¼ of all hospital admissions and 40% of all nursing home admissions. The stark reality of this data is that 25% of admitted fall victims die within the year. The number of senior citizens aged 65+ living in the U.S. is steadily and exponentially increasing: whereas there were 15M seniors in our country in 1950, we have 39.6M currently living in the U.S. And by 2030, a projected 72.1M seniors will be living in the U.S.: 19% of our country’s population. Clearly, the demographic cannot be ignored.
Caution: Falling Seniors
33%seniors fall each year.
55%falls occur in the home.
40%nursing home admissions
25%hospital admissions
Falls account for...
25%Admitted fall victims
diewithin a year.
10 mil
20 mil
30 mil
40 mil
50 mil
60 mil
70 mil
80 mil
2010-2050projected
Caution: Falling Seniors
231900
1950
2000
2050
65+85+ A growing demographic
39.6 mil[13%]
72.1 mil[19%]
24
The GenPhilly Network functions as a forum for professionals in the aging community to gather, discuss, and critique their actions towards making Philadelphia more age-friendly. Community leaders, city officials, activists, architects, accountants and others participate in the GenPhilly Network for the opportunity to exchange new ideas with people they may normally not have.
We joined The GenPhilly Network to meet the movers and shakers in Philadelphia’s aging community. We wanted to know what efforts were already underway to address the aging demographic that was poised to grow, and how designers might fit into the picture. Over the course of several meetings, GenPhilly guided this project toward a platform to promote social capital.
“...a group of like-minded professionals from a variety of fields who actively participate... to make our city more age-friendly.”http://genphilly.wordpress.com/about-us/
Who is GenPhilly?
26
Who else can we learn from?Next, we sought out other successful programs in Philadelphia where seniors remained in their homes and received emotional and physical support from externally arranged, non-family visits. This search revealed the Time Out Respite Program at Temple University. As described on Temple University’s website, “Time Out is a model intergenerational respite and home support program in which college students provide quality, low cost services to families caring for the frail elderly.” Seniors participating in the Time Out Respite Program are 50+ years old, lower-income and often on Social Security. The director, Susan Smith, explained that a senior will always feel a level of initial distrust when meeting a student for the first time and that the relationship should be built on genuine friendship - care is secondary. A caregiver must find common ground with the senior through natural engagement. Once this is accomplished, the senior is noticeably happier and more alert after spending the day with a student.
City Hall
27
University of the Arts
Time Out Respite
28
Social capital refers to the support and resources individuals have access to as a result of the networks they are connected to. The essential building blocks of social capital are collective efficacy, psychological sense of community, neighborhood cohesion and community competence. The paper Social capital: a guide to its measurement tells us that when properly employed, people are less likely to die when they’re invested in social capital. And just because a group project sees its completion, the connections established between participants will foster continued future social capital. It is a natural transformation and depends on reciprocity, trust and shared goals. Older people’s perceptions of the neighborhood: Evidence from socially deprived urban areas shows us that a lack of social capital can be the result of people or geography so it’s important to understand both before employing strategies to encourage it.
Something to offerEach individual in a network has their own unique sets of talents or tools that sets them apart from the rest of the network.
Better togetherBy combining skills and resources, the entire network and the individuals in the network should all benefit.
What is social capital?
What does social capital have to do with older adults?
Maintaining social interactions is directly linked to one’s physical (and mental) well-being. As evidenced in Social Butterflies Appear to Age More Gracefully, the link between a senior’s socialization and their physical health was seen in an examination of 900 subjects over the course of 5 years. Socialization requires strong social networks, defined in Social Capital and Successful Aging: The Role of Senior Housing as the “resources available to individuals and groups through social connections and social relations with others.” This refers to the links and interdependency among friends, family, or any social structure with an exchange of knowledge, beliefs, prestige or sexuality.
Social Capital and Successful Aging also points to the resiliency of social networks in their ability to benefit even those not directly linked to the people participating. Social activity will naturally inspire the social capital to support seniors as their health deteriorates. The study suggests clinicians prescribe this social activity just as they might recommend exercise and to quit smoking. We’ve learned from Temple University’s Time Out Respite Program that being engaged with one’s friends and community at an advanced age shows marked improvement in alertness and happiness (physical and psychological benefits).
Social activity will naturally inspire the social capital to support seniors as their health deteriorates.
30
$601 bil.in 2000
$952 bil.in 2007
Each block represents ten billion dollars spent.
35% of budgetAs of 2007, senior benefits is the largest monetary function of the federal government.
Federal government spending on elderly benefits.Data taken from Dennis Cauchon’s article “Senior benefit costs up 24%” in USA Today.
Projected average cost of medical expenses after retirement.Data taken from “Retiree health cost estimate falls, for a change,” an AARP article.
Minimum individual cost of living for retirees.
$37.7k
Health Care &Nursing Homes
Social Security
$14.1k $13.2k
Cost of nursing homes and home health care.Data taken from “Average Cost of Nursing Home Room Tops $70,000 a Year,” an Elder Law Answers article.
Average annual cost of a nursing home room.
$70.1k private
$61.7k semi-private
Received home health care in 2000.
1.3 milPatients were over 65.
7 in 10
2000 20102005
$160kin 2002
$230kin 2011
$250kin 2010
$50k
$100k
$150k
$200k
$250k
$300k
Average rate for home health care.
$18.00per hour
31
“As people prepare for their retirement and assess their asset and income requirements, it is also essential that they plan for the possibility that they will need assistance with day-to-day living.”Sandra Timmermann, Ed.D.director of the MetLife Mature Market Institute
31
The financial benefits associated with keeping seniors physically, mentally and socially active are substantial: felt across families and entire communities, says the Tufts University Health and Nutrition Newsletter. And Social Capital and Successful Aging makes clear that while nursing homes may provide good care and social opportunities for residents, the rising cost is prohibitive for many. Planned care environments, on the other hand, offer the possibility for community integration and keeping daily routines intact for seniors. Failing to recognize the value and importance of social capital is devastatingly costly. Considering the amount our government and individuals already invest into senior care, there are insufficient funds to cover an increased burden on senior care in its current state.
What is the cost of social capital?
32
Robert Putnam is cited in Social Capital and Successful Aging arguing that the deterioration of social capital in the U.S. is a growing concern among those seniors who might depend on it for survival as they age. Proximity alone will not foster strong enough relationships for social capital. It is necessary to support and maintain social capital as we age. “Aging in place,” as it’s called and referred to in the article Aging at Home: For a Lucky Few, a Wish Come True, is a complicated matter. Seniors who lose their independence require assistance in a variety of ways from a variety of caregivers including medical providers and their community members. These parties must be willing to work with an aging senior in their home, on the senior’s schedule, to ensure efficient in-place aging.
What is the condition of social capital in the US?
33
Some models, such as Beacon Hill Village in Massachusetts, argue that one way to keep seniors independent is to get them involved directly with their community before they become irrevocably dependent. Members may join the community at a younger age (as young as 50), citing enjoyable activities and convenient home services such as plumbing and grocery shopping as enticing benefits. All this, however, has proven expensive: a household membership at the time of this writing costs $890/yr. The problem with the Beacon Hill model is that it doesn’t account for older adults’ need for greater assistance as they continue aging. Social capital must also keep these adults in regular contact with formal health and social services to ensure uninterrupted care in each neighborhood.
Too much independence can be detrimental to seniors. If they don’t remain well integrated in their social circles, they might cross the “loneliness threshold” identified in Centrality of social ties to the health and well-being of older adults. This is distinct from isolation. Since there exist very few documented scales or techniques for measuring senior social networks, “there tends to be an inadequate reporting of the psychometric properties of social support...” and the types of recommendations we make depend on exactly what we hear, see, and learn from the seniors we’ve identified.
What if I don’t need support?
34
Maintaining perspective is essential to improving something (the Time Bank, in this case) without making it “our own”. Patricia Moore’s lectures and experience concerning empathic research teach us that it’s easy to think of seniors as “other” from us. Their well-being depends on wide-scale participation from younger people and their population of fellow seniors. “It takes a village...” is a phrase that gets at the root of this problem: an inclusive model is necessary for the eradication of “grey ghettos” of forgotten people.
Fortunately, people tend to agree on what makes a neighborhood “good”. We could point to universal qualities identified in Older people’s perceptions of the neighborhood: Evidence from socially deprived urban areas which held true across age, gender and ethnic backgrounds. Consequently, any experience we had as younger adults from outside Walnut Hill shouldn’t matter.
What do graduate students know about how seniors live?
Patricia Moore as an 80-year old Patricia Moore in her 20s
This program was created in 1999 to think about how technology might offer us practical solutions to take advantage of today’s increasing life expectancy. The MIT Age Lab designs products, services and policies which aim to improve future quality of life.
Walnut Hill
37
DefineAfter speaking with our academic advisers and communicating with the leaders of the Walnut Hill Time Bank, we discovered that our efforts should draw upon the concept of using social capital to help seniors “age in place.” The Walnut Hill Time Bank is already taking steps to foster relationships in neighborhoods that can help seniors age more gracefully, however these
residents also represent a larger segment of the population that may not be able to afford alternative forms of senior care. Therefore, we proposed a new question: How can design help the Walnut Hill Time Bank strengthen the connections they have already made, and establish new ones in areas that are unresponsive to the program?
38
We set out on our own to explore the neighborhood; walked the streets for hours in the daytime and evening, visited shops, engaged in conversation with strangers and ate at local restaurants. We took pictures, asked questions, even gave directions. We took the train and commuted with residents. After a couple of weeks, the two of us developed a cursory understanding of what made Walnut Hill unique. In the course of our visits, we spoke with a variety of people to get a better understanding of who our user was. Hearing people’s speak their mind was the first step in exposing the community issues and where design might be able to help. The following character profiles serve as examples of Walnut Hill residents, workers and volunteers who comprise the population we engaged with. Names have been changed to protect their identities and, in some cases, profiles are an amalgam of individual stories.
Who lives in Walnut Hill?
39
“I’ve lived in Philadelphia all my life but Walnut Hill doesn’t feel like home.”
“There’s no love in the city of brotherly love.”
40
Works in Walnut Hill, but doesn’t belong. Pearl, a shopkeeper at the Brown Sugar Bakery, dresses casually and keeps her hair pulled back up under her hair net. She lives in Northeast Philadelphia but doesn’t mind the commute to her bakery on the corner of Chancellor St and 52nd St. The bakery has been around for 11 years, and Pearl, with a noticeable Caribbean accent, has lived in the Philadelphia area for about a year. She has no family in the Philadelphia area but she appreciates Philadelphia’s diversity. She’s shy, doesn’t have many local friends to rely on and isn’t actively involved in any community functions.
PearlAge: 33
Walnut Hill doesn’t feel like home. Tamika is fit and carries herself professionally. She has an inviting smile and kindly agreed to be photographed. Tamika currently lives at 52nd and Chancelor and works at the Foot Locker on 52nd Street and Market as a sales associate. She has been living in West Philly since she was 11 and has lived in the Walnut Hill area for 3-years at 52nd and Chancelor. She likes the neighborhood because many things are convenient by foot but dislikes how few supermarkets there are nearby. She has 2 children (aged 9 and 11-years) and spends a lot of time with her mother who lives on the other side of West Philly. Her cousin lives up the street from her current residence. Most of her friends are from her old neighborhood (62nd and Vine).
The problem with her current block is that it is “drug infested”. Consequently, she trusts her neighbors and depends on them to keep a watchful eye on her children when she can’t.
One event she and her children look forward to each summer is the annual block party. This gives the neighbors a chance to sit on their building steps with their children and talk to each other. Mostly senior citizens and young kids populate her immediate neighborhood. Because of the underlying danger in this area, she still considers her old neighborhood at 62nd and Vine “home”. Tamika doesn’t own a car so SEPTA is her primary mode of transportation.
She doesn’t care for city programs because they don’t offer services that are relevant to her and her children (nor are they as comprehensive as the YMCA and Free Library that are already in her area, which her children use).
TamikaAge: 32
41
Hopeful for community action. Abe is a larger man with a beard and crooked teeth. When he speaks, he is visibly passionate about social change, regardless of what neighborhood he lives in (Abe prefers to stay on the move and travel across cities, worldwide). He currently lives at 46th and Brown Street and earns a modest living as a street vendor selling music mixes. Abe has lived in his current home at Brown and 46th for 2 years but grew up in North Philly. He appreciates the level of diversity and progressive thinking in the area but fears the influx of youth centers bringing angry young people to the streets. He explains that fighting is rampant in the streets and makes this a dangerous place for everyone.
From his corner he’s seen people fall on the ice and watch as other people walk by without assisting. He says block parties aren’t effective ways to bring cohesion to a neighborhood because not everybody gets involved. For example, some people don’t move their cars and others get discouraged from participating.
He has no immediate family in Philadelphia and says he has “no love for the city of brotherly love”. He sees another move (perhaps abroad) in his near future.
Abe would be interested in participating in a Time Bank but candidly shares that he finds such efforts “ineffective” because they’re not well organized.
Rather not be indebted to others. Jay has a lengthy beard and narrow, darting eyes. He wears strong cologne. Jay currently lives at 52nd and Christian and works as a store manager at the local T-Mobile shop.
Jay has lived in his current home for 10 years and feels “stuck” in the neighborhood. Jay doesn’t know or care for many of his neighbors and keeps to himself. He doesn’t want to be taken advantage of and doesn’t want to have to rely on others for favors. His grandfather has lived at 60th between Christian and Webster for 40 years. He is friendly with all the other seniors in the area. He used to own his own company selling cellular phones but had to sell it. He did not say why and prefers to stick to his routine at T-Mobile.
JayAge: 33
AbeAge: 39
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Proud of her independence.The Walnut Hill Street Team checks in on Ms. Cody at least once weekly. Yet like many of her peers, Ms. Cody admits that seniors don’t like to be “checked up on”. The irony is that just a few weeks prior to our discussion with the white-haired woman she was suffering from a severe case of pneumonia and endured an extended stay in the hospital.
Ms. Cody has a generous smile. She lives with her brother and her miniature pinscher. If it weren’t for the Street Team’s visits, Ms. Cody would find herself disconnected from Walnut Hill. She lives in a beautifully maintained home at 50th and Ludlow, which she proudly explains came in second place for the Phila More Beautiful contest. It’s been her home for 50-years.
Although she has been block captain for 15 years, her age and limited mobility makes it difficult for her to be on top of everything without twice-weekly visits from the street team. She’d like to bring the success of her block’s tree planting, garbage cleanup and beautification to other blocks in Walnut Hill but can’t do it alone. A network of like-minded neighbors and organized collection of required skills would be invaluable to see her vision to fruition.
Ms. CodyAge: 68
Powerless and alone.Ms. Margate is afraid to shop in her immediate neighborhood: the street gangs terrify her. Even though her bank has a branch across the street from her home, she travels to Germantown to withdraw money, buy groceries and attend church services. Even parking her car is a constant struggle - confusing alternate side parking schedules and handicap regulations means she and her neighbors are fighting tickets on a regular basis. When it snows, days pass before some sidewalks are cleared (if at all) and there’s little cooperation with those who own snow throwers. Ms. Margate says Mayor Nutter doesn’t care about people in her situation. It’s everyone for themselves and with few resources, every day is a struggle.
Ms. MargateAge: 75
43
Won’t take ‘no’ for an answer.A 55-year old resident, Mr. Thompson loves his community. He describes how different Philadelphia is from the rural upbringing he had as a boy in Illinois. “It’s all about the people,” Mr. Thompson declares. “I love seeing all the people walking about, chatting with each other and looking out for each other. But it’s not enough...” He trails off and then explains that gang violence is a terrible problem on the streets of Walnut Hill. “I have the bullet holes in my truck to prove it,” he says with a tough-guy laugh. But he is a tough guy; a man who stations himself on corners at 3:00AM to talk to the young people who have no positive adult influences. Mr. Thompson recognizes the need for residents to band together and work towards taking their corners and blocks, one at a time, back from the street gangs. He wishes that people would organize themselves and work towards mutually-beneficial community goals.
An aspiring teacher.Since Mrs. Harris passed away four years ago, Mr. Harris, a retired electrical engineer, finds himself with a lot of free time on his hands. He plays solitaire and volunteers at the Free Library three days a week, however he can’t shake the feeling of loneliness that follows him around. Mr. Harris always enjoyed building with blocks as a child and later, experimenting with solderless breadboard kits from RadioShack. He tried to arrange a children’s workshop at the Free Library but abandoned the idea after the organization’s bureaucracy wore him down. Mr. Harris would prefer to teach kids in his home workshop, after school, noting that it will keep them out of trouble and teach them a valuable trade.
Mr. HarrisAge: 70
Mr. ThomasAge: 55
52nd street is Main Street snowy walkwayfamily run stores
doesn’t feel at home
street vendors are common wants more community gathering at McDonald’s
drug dealerssidewalk in disrepair
45
Starting down Walnut Hill’s Main Street (52nd), we took snapshots of some obvious challenges elderly residents faced: sidewalks in disrepair, uncleared icy pathways, menacing drug dealers and local shops with limited business hours. The pictures we collected painted pictures of a neighborhood in some ways unwelcoming to people of any age, let alone seniors.
We reached out to both the West Philadelphia YMCA and Free Library on several occasions but were ignored and turned away. Gathering information would be difficult if we failed to partner with the right social advocates already in place. GenPhilly helped us identify the problem and our intervention point, yet it seemed we would have a difficult time finding a partner organization within the neighborhood with similar goals to ours.
Early impressionsWest Phildelphia YMCA
Free Library of Philadelphia
46
Who are theThe Street TeamThe Enterprise Center, CDC started the Street Team in 2007 as a “pro-active, door-to-door outreach program for residents of Walnut Hill”. The Street Team hits the sidewalk twice a week to distribute neighborhood program information. The team is made up of Walnut Hill residents who inspire a sense of community and function as a dynamic communication system within the neighborhood. The Street Team functions as much as a physical newsletter as they do an at-home caretaker, ensuring the well being of each resident. At nearly every turn, Street Teamers greeted residents by name with smiles and hellos. They dutifully knocked on doors to share stories and news with residents who invited them to sit and stay for a while.
47
Block CaptainsResidents who, with or without city recognition, act as coordinators, representatives and advocates for the others living in their block.
Having met several block captains over the course of our engagement with Walnut Hill, we can say with some authority that block captains are much more than coordinators, representatives and advocates. They are the community drivers who push for beautification efforts, monitor crime, check in on their neighbors and build communities from blocks; the ones you turn to when you have a question or a problem in the neighborhood; they see to it that streetlights are working and sidewalks remain clear; they can be found at block captain meetings representing those who can’t represent themselves; they get positive things accomplished for their block by visiting City Hall and holding elected officials accountable.
community advocates?Block captains and street team members discussing strategies for better community engagement.
The Enterprise Center
Market Street
Market Street
52nd
Str
eet
46th
Str
eet
4848
The Enterprise Center (TEC), founded in 1989 by the Wharton Small Business Development Center, houses a community development corporation (CDC). With the motto, “The future of business is here,” TEC was created to assist minority entrepreneurs succeed in the marketplace locally, regionally and globally. The Walnut Hill Time Bank operates out of TEC and is funded by grants. Similarly, The Center for Culinary Enterprises and Urban Farms are two examples of local business which work to improve access to healthy food in communities and schools and rebuild blighted infrastructure. It all boils down to community economic development.
The Walnut Hill Time Bank functions from within TEC-CDC as a resource for sharing services between participating residents. Although the organization is self-described as a source of inter-generational neighbor-to-neighbor connections, they function not unlike an informal group of friends coordinating a block party or renovating a neighbor’s kitchen. They exist to foster trust between residents in West Philadelphia and do so by exchanging credits as currency.
Who is our client?
City Hall
49
University of the Arts
Time Out Respite
50
How does Time Banking work?
Time Banking, put simply, is spending and saving time as if it were money. Each hour of your time spent helping someone in your community goes into your Time Bank as a “Time Dollar”. Your banked Time Dollars can then be redeemed for services from other members of your community Time Bank. Members earn Time Dollars after each service they complete and can spend them on other services listed on a centralized Time Bank website or directory. As described on www.timebanks.org, “Time Banking is about local individuals helping each other out, one-on-one or with group projects. They help rebuild neighborhood networks and strengthen communities.”
Services are as varied as the members of your community: from gardening to marketing and everything in between. It is possible to go into debt, of course, however this isn’t a big deal. A member must receive in order for others to give and so debt is normally a temporary issue. The core ideology behind the Time Banking model is about strengthening community through reciprocity. The most successful Time Banks incorporate a diverse group of participants, foster a range of skills and encourage new membership on a regular basis. “It is a ‘pay-it-forward’ system [in which] you don’t have to figure out what to give back to the person who helped you. You can choose how to pay it forward doing what you want, when you want.”
51
Successful Time Banking depends on diligent reporting and logging of hours. For example, if you were snowed in and unable to clear the snow by yourself, you would first check with your local Time Bank to see what services other members were looking for. You would then see where you could help (say you enjoyed babysitting) and offer your time rendering that particular service. This exchange would be coordinated through Time Bank representatives and leave you with credit in the network which you could spend on snow shoveling.
+1
-1
How did we engage the community?
53
In addition to our meetings with block captains at The Enterprise Center, we understood that we needed a metaphorical “ticket” into the community to move further, and arranged for some canvassing sessions with the Street Team.
Through these meetings, a great deal of the direction and motivation for our interventions arose. We listened to stories, asked questions, laughed and lamented. The anecdotal feedback we collected from block captains in these meetings allowed us to shape the prototypes according to their desires. These meetings were our “home base” during the project; a venue to discuss our thoughts openly and vocalize our plans. We observed facial expressions, body language and tone of voice, all of which contributed to shaping our understanding of our audience and the problems we aimed to solve. Block captains and street team members were our direct liaison to the community. They lent us a degree of credibility we would have sorely lacked otherwise. They invited us into residents’ homes and graciously volunteered their time. With the Street Team, we took these findings and compared them with what we observed while canvasing blocks.
The level of understanding we gained by first getting to know some block captains beforehand - and, later, continuing to meet with them throughout the project calendar - made our time canvasing exponentially more productive. In addition to canvasing, formal meetings with the block captains and street team members allowed us to get to know these residents as human beings: grandparents, sisters, brothers and volunteers. “My sister keeps an eye on the street at all times. If it’s happening outside her window, she knows about it.” And the block captains got to know the two of us as well. This level of conviviality allowed us to more realistically discuss the work we were engaged in without using platitudes. Frankness was common in both our presentations to them and their evaluation of our work, which allowed us to create the most realistic solutions to their challenges.
55
Synthesizing these observations over several weeks and repeated meetings, we returned to our studio for some lengthy brainstorming. We asked ourselves (as well as our peers) where might design benefit the residents’ and Street Team’s work, how we could help without getting
in the way and what operations already worked well so we might extend them. Drawing from our research, interviews and observations, some key points emerged for consideration. It came time to compare what we expected with what we heard, observed and eventually understood.
Synthesis
56
? !
We quickly realized that the Time Bank’s services were insular - any participating resident interested in either sharing a service for credit or receiving services was limited by who else they knew was also a participating resident. Additionally, outside contact with Street Teamers or TEC-CDC was necessary to get a transaction started. And once such steps were taken, communication relied on computer access to record time dollar credits. Since computer access was limited for many of the seniors in Walnut Hill, many transactions went unrecorded.
What process did we observe?
57
With so many residents moving into temporary housing and others passing away or moving farther outside the city limits, resident turnover is unusually frequent on some blocks in Walnut Hill. Neighbors might have a shorter amount of time to meet each other and establish trusting relationships.
Resident Turnover
Learning what residents need, want and can provide was a time consuming process. We observed that Street Team members would enter a resident’s home, offer flyers and handouts with upcoming event schedules and chat about current events. On average, this exchange took 45-75 minutes, making it difficult to visit many houses in a single outing.
Lengthy Engagement with Residents
Anecdotaly, we learned that many older Walnut Hill residents seek computer access roughly once per quarter. We took this into consideration and decided to stay away from social media, mobile platforms and online directories (see Community Directory).
Computer Access
Unless neighbors already spoke to each other, word of the Time Bank was privileged. Residents weren’t provided an outlet to publicize their participation where it mattered most: at home. While the street team had their own customized t-shirts and jackets, we were surprised to see no posters, stickers, or t-shirts for participants to display.
Publicity Barriers
While an online directory makes sense for most organizations, many residents in this community do not interact online. An online directory provides no benefit to the Time Bank network if the members can’t interface with it.
Directory Accessibility
Due to the separation many residents have from the Internet, many transactions go unrecorded. It is excellent that some residents don’t need the incentive of Time Bank currency for these exchanges. However, this alienates those who need this incentive and limits the network’s ability to expand to include these new members.
Unrecorded Transactions
59
We sought to provide simple, easy-to-update, tangible tools to help the community, the Street Team, and the Time Bank. The results were simple paper products and documents. Portable, lightweight, inexpensive and reproducible after we’ve gone, these prototypes are playful and engaging ways to aid the
Street Team in their efforts to make Walnut Hill a better place to live work and play. We conceptualized these tools to address deficient branding across the organization’s tools and materials, which served to more clearly communicate the group’s mission.
Prototype
60
Service CardsThe character/actor service cards save time and effort when meeting new residents and encouraging involvement with the Walnut Hill Time Bank. By reducing the initial cognitive load required to establish talking points through play, these colorful cards represent and convey complex ideas using simple iconography. A process which took upwards of 45-minutes without these icebreakers now takes 5-minutes and yields more actionable information for the street team and residents.
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DirectoryA contact repository for participating members, new residents and block captains. This prototype consists of an easily-maintained MS Word document, complete with editable macros and form elements which house a member’s name, contact info, headshot and skills if applicable. It improves on the web-document the Time Bank currently uses and which the community has limited access to.
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Membership SwagThis tool gives the residents the ability to showcase their membership to the neighborhood and give the Time Bank a community presence. We’ve represent it here as a t-shirt, but it could any number of forms of swag like a window sticker or a flag to hang on your porch. These artifacts help spread program awareness and expand the network of skill-sharing Time Bankers as well as reinforce legacy membership. The swag reinforces resident incentives to engage with each other and populate the Time Bank with valuable services.
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Transaction PadThis simple paper pad prototype offers a way to record Time Banking transactions between residents in a way that is fast and doesn’t require a computer. Each page offers a carbon copy receipt and a copy which can be transferred to the Time Bank for electronic recording at a later date. This way, a master database can house the community’s transactions and individuals can take charge of theirs individually. The pad also affords participants to “donate” their banked hours to another member by designating a participating recipient’s name on the same copy.
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BrochureThis simple tri-fold document allows the street team to quickly spread the word and invite new residents to the program. Using simple iconography and precise descriptive text, the document is an artifact which lingers in the person’s hands and home, keeping the team’s presence in the front of their mind. The brochure would ideally be paired in some form of a conversation to act as an effective communication tool for the Time Bank.
I can never get this computer to print! I should call those nice
people with the Street Team about getting help from the Time Bank.
1 STISSUECOLLECTOR’S ITEM
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Join Forces!University of the Arts
andThe Enterprise Center
Can I help you?
Do Come in!
Hello Ms. Earlene,We’re the Street team!
We’re here to talk to you about joining the Time Bank.
alright.
We’d like to learn a bit about what services you might need, and what you can offer.
Look through these cards and put anything that interests you in the thumbs up slot.
s. Earlene told the street team about herself.M
Her computer troubles...
and Her love of cooking.
Here’s your Directory, Transaction Pad, and t-Shirt.
Thank you so much!
s. Earlene was given the essentials to participate in the Time Bank.M
She was proud to be part of the Time Bank.
Josh and Ms. Earlene had a blast cooking together.
he glanced at the Directory and found someone she could help.S
I could teach Josh how to cook.
They formalized the exchange with the transaction pad... And submitted it for credit.
nd Ms. Earlene used her credit to get help with her computer.A
If you hit “crtl” and “p” at the same time...
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The methods we used to gather data and record the significant characteristics of our findings were not unlike a detective’s work: recording pictures, audio, notes, sketches and visual diagrams (not to mention the venerable Post-It) combined
to form a clearer understanding of what made Walnut Hill Connect worth pursuing. Several themes emerged when we observed how our audience received the work we produced.
Observe
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We observed residents participating in the Time Bank exchanges without receiving compensation. The act of helping a neighbor was enough incentive for these residents. We tried to expand these acts of kindness by allowing individuals to help each other by donating the funds they earn as well. However, once a value was attributed to these acts of kindness they were reluctant to share. They universally expressed frustration with the suggestion of added steps and would prefer not to keep track of hours they wouldn’t redeem themselves. Many Time Banks have forms devoted specifically to donating hours, however we’re not confident that the Walnut Hill community will embrace the option.
Volunteerism vs. Time Banking
Ineffective VisualsPrior to our outings with the street team, we created a postcard to visually represent and explain the benefits of social capital - something we could hand out and leave with residents while going door-to-door. We immediately found this to confuse the interaction: residents didn’t know whether to focus on what we were saying or to read the postcard. It didn’t communicate very effectively without us to answer their questions and lacked any form of interactivity.
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We observed a strong response to the suggestion that active Time Bankers receive recognition for their participation. Beyond the positive reinforcement of this recognition, it also has the potential to create friendly competitions between neighbors to see who can earn the most credit. Publicizing these friendly competitions goes a long way towards encouraging others to get involved.
Friendly Competition
Residents made clear their desire to see, hold and physically submit receipts for their time dollars spent and received. This departure from the earlier online-only model will likely shape the way future Time Bank participants interact with each other and The Enterprise Center. Computer access will no longer be a barrier to entry and a greater number of transactions will hinge on social interaction. This reflects the core values of Time Banking as well as how older residents feel about exchanging credit.
Analog Transactions
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After researching, defining, synthesizing, prototyping and observing, it came time for perhaps the most meaningful part of this project: evaluation. We felt strongly about understanding exactly what impact our work had on the Walnut Hill community and whether it would last. We wanted to learn about what we did well and why some efforts were misguided. Synthesizing allowed us to compose the disparate components of the project into a meaningful whole, and evaluation was a chance to asses and reflect on these months’ work.
Speaking with our client as we handed off digital copies of our design tools, it was clear that The Enterprise Center CDC was eager to continue using them in the future
and to share our work with Time Banks USA. The prototypes were basic enough that they should be adaptable for a variety of Time Banks across the country. How they will be used is unknown, but we look forward to seeing how our ideas evolve in the future.
It was also necessary to keep our work in perspective and understand that the tools themselves were not the only result of our research and design. We heard from our client that the approach some Street Team members took to their tasks had changed. Handling our prototypes and weighing their effectiveness during role playing exercises and in residents’ homes changed the way we viewed the initial problem.
Evaluate
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BrochureThis concept was the least successful one we proposed. While some Street Team members truly appreciated having the option to leave concise literature with residents who wouldn’t have time to speak right away, we later heard that people are sick of brochures and wouldn’t read them. Inspired by this mixed response, we’ve decided the material might prove beneficial in the future and we are including it in the final toolkit.
DirectoryWe received feedback that acknowledged the value of giving members a directory they could actually interface with. They appreciated the steps that this concept took toward making the Time Bank more self sustaining by the residents. There was concern expressed about privacy though. The Time Bank is an opt in program, but members may still not want to share private information like their home phone number. The directory can easily omit this information, but there is still the risk of deterring residents from joining the Time Bank.
Service CardsThe officials of the Walnut Hill Time Bank were drawn to concepts that encouraged direct interaction between residents and workers. Namely, the service cards that were designed to facilitate discussions. They were drawn to this concept because the structured process helped facilitate the interaction and prevented the discussion from meandering on tangents. As an activity it was fun, but it also helped the workers stay more productive.
While presenting this concept to the Street Team, without prompting they began role playing to test the effectiveness of the cards. This proved to be an excellent training exercise to become comfortable with the tool. We witnessed actors enjoying the acting, and viewers getting excited by the results of the tools. This exercise also highlighted that practice is helpful as some Street Team members became shy and bashful when asked to take the role playing stage.
The exciting test, however, was once cards were in the hands of residents unfamiliar with the Time Bank and its services. One 87-year old woman found our introductions confusing. She asked us to repeat our examples several times and wasn’t sure of why we were in her home. The service cards allowed her to review information at her pace, understand the services visually and see how the Time Bank could benefit her. By the time she placed a handful of cards in the box, she was discussing her daily routine with us. Although they depended on the woman’s willingness to speak with us at all, the service cards afforded quick and effective communication beyond what words conveyed.
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Membership SwagThe Time Bank liked these tools because they let the community publicize the Time Bank instead of that responsibility falling solely on the Street Team. They also appreciated that the visible community presence would give non-members people to look up to as a method of drawing new members into the network. The concept resonated particularly well because it paralleled the success of their own Street Team member shirts and winter jackets. We commonly witnessed passersby go out of their way to say hello to members on canvasing outings.
When one resident donned a prototype Time Bank member t-shirt, she exclaimed, “This is great! I’m going to wear this out when I pick up my husband later,” and wore it for the rest of our interview. The graphic treatment echos the Walnut Hill Street Team’s existing t-shirts, jackets and literature yet is more stylized, bold and distilled. We felt it more effectively communicated their mission and matched their verbal identity.
Sentence StartersThese cards were designed to be distributed at group meetings to collect feedback. However, we were only able to test them while canvassing the neighborhood. The Street Team recognized that they might be excellent tools for inspiring conversations with shy or hesitant residents but in our tests with residents they broke up the flow of face-to-face conversation. The key to their usefulness, we suspect, is in presenting them upfront, in a group setting and using them to kick off the conversation. The sentence starters are ineffective when introduced midway through a conversation.
Transaction PadThe transaction pad was a runaway success. It made tangible what was previously a nebulous online transaction. Older residents quickly understood the value of a “time dollar” and could keep track of their credits at home. They appreciated the flexibility of handing off their receipts to Street Team members or mailing them to The Enterprise Center at their convenience. It’s our opinion that Time Bank participation will greatly increase if residents are encouraged to use the transaction pads.
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Reflection
This was a project of iterative testing, failing, listening, testing again and learning. With each step came a new perspective: one that evolved over the course of these months and shifted from viewing social capital as a construct
limited by definition to seeing it where people already depended on one another. Our understanding of age changed. Our understanding of aging changed. Trust, dependency, community and family took on new meanings.
Why are our days numbered and not, say, lettered?-Woody Allen
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As graduate students at an art school, much of the work’s success hinged on making a meaningful connection to those directly involved with our efforts. Trust, as in social capital, proved essential to our relationship with Walnut Hill, the Time Bank and the Street Team. Despite our best efforts, there remained a level of disconnectedness between our vision and what the Street Team responded to: our excitement for some interventions, such as the service cards, was met with equal enthusiasm. But others, such as the brochure (designed to help the volunteers communicate their mission) were not so interesting to our audience. Our role, as designers, demanded that we remain impartial and respond to our audience’s needs. We quickly recognized when our presentations became more like sales pitches and adapted our strategies accordingly: create only what the audience will effectively use.
It’s important to remember that we weren’t asked to intervene, yet we inserted ourselves into our client’s operations to evaluate and critique them. It seems reasonable that we were met with resistance. Earning the clients trust was necessary to achieving an equal investment in the project. Although we came away from our project’s engagement with meaningful professional contacts, it’s important to remember that our work was initially uninvited and the commitment we asked for was not inconsequential.
Feeling like outsiders
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Anyone should expect a learning curve when entering an unfamiliar field. As we’ve acknowledged, the best way to overcome this lack of expertise is to have adequate research with which to approach the problem and to form community partnerships. The GenPhilly Network gave us the ability to connect with professionals, organizations, and residents from Walnut Hill. Connecting with the Gen Philly Network proved to be the most decisive hinge point of our process. One can only speculate how differently our work might have developed if we made that connection sooner.
We might have had different results if we were more a part of the Street Team’s social circle. Personal and professional connectedness might have benefited from devoting at least a couple of weeks in our project to working in The Enterprise Center’s offices and possibly even taking up temporary residence in Walnut Hill. These actions would have been helpful steps toward showing commitment to the project and enticing a coequal investment from other participants.
Hindsight’s 20/20
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What we’ve achieved with this project is certainly not limited to the Walnut Hill community. The project should serve as an example to draw upon as other community organizers reach out to their residents. With this in mind, here are some aspects of this project that are important to maintain in other settings.
Decisions worth repeating
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Do your research.Diving headfirst into the breadth and quality of research that we did enabled us to identify social problems early and easily recognize them when it came time to explore Walnut Hill. This kick started our engagement and gave us a degree of credibility when meeting with professionals. Discussing their work in the context of education and design (and with some knowledge of their contributions) shows that you value their time. They, in turn, will be less likely to waste yours.
Become part of the community.Taking some initiative and embarking on unchaperoned visits proved invaluable to our big-picture understanding of the neighborhood, without which we’d only have half the story to work with. The Walnut Hill we observed with the Street Team was a much friendlier place than that which we experienced alone.
Form the right partnerships.Perhaps the most effective choice we made was to connect with the right professionals from the beginning (in our case, via GenPhilly). Philadelphia is a city teeming with networks of activists in a range of fields. To ignore these resources would be to work in a vacuum. Although seven months sounded like plenty of time at the outset, it proved far less than we would have liked. Time management aside, the assistance and expertise of others were like getting several years’ head start. We owe much of the success of this project to them.
Iterate, iterate, iterate.Come up with as many ideas as quickly as possible. Test these ideas as quickly as possible too. You want to find out which ideas aren’t working as soon as possible so you can move on to the ideas that work. Simply put: fail fast so you can succeed faster.
Nobody will be more critical of your concepts than the end users themselves. This sort of feedback is imperative to developing a successful product. Much like the speed of iterations, this should also happen as quickly as possible.
Include the audience in your process.
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