1. FOREWORD Do we best understand community action by reading about it in a book? In this case, yes.
What you’re reading is the result of ten weeks of collective effort, capturing the unique constraints and opportunities that emerge from direct collaboration between designers, students, teachers and educators at educational institutions, local nonprofits, and community members at large Our shared goal was to conduct the first highereducation pilot of frog’s Collective Action Toolkit (CAT) in Savannah. The CAT was created for leaders who want to bring together groups to solve problems in their community, while gaining valuable skills and knowledge along the way. The CAT encourages problem solving as a form of skill development, with activities that draw on participants’ strengths and perspectives. It’s available for use by anyone free at www.frogdesign.com/cat. While frog had initially piloted and refined activities from the toolkit with girls living in extreme poverty in sub-Saharan African and Bangladesh, this pilot would serve as an opportunity to understand how to deploy the toolkit in ways that would encourage student-led learning as part of equitable community partnerships.
Eight graduate students in Scott Boylston’s “Sustainable Design Practices” class used the CAT as a set of tools for working with local high-school students, as well as facilitating their own project work. 42 students and 3 teachers at Savannah, Beach, and Groves high schools took part in CAT activities over a series of weeks, moving from identifying community issues they were passionate about solving to coming up with potential solutions. Gator Rivers and Debra Hasan from Gatorball Academy worked with the above constituents, co-creating strategies to encourage their organization’s growth alongside the community. Together, these collaborators have generated strong insights and best practices about how the design process can be used for skill development in education, where the communication of ideas can serve as a vehicle to teach inquiry, leadership, and problem-solving for anyone. It’s our hope that you can use what follows to accelerate your efforts to do the same. David Sherwin Principal Designer, frog Co-author, Collective Action Toolkit
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