Method Guide: Informing

ACTIVATING ANALYZING INFORMING MAKING MAPPING STORYTELLING

METHOD GUIDE

WHAT IS INFORMING? Informing shares the tools and methods we use with others allowing both professionals and community members to apply thoughtful design to the challenges that affect their lives and communities. Through a variety of platforms including workshops, conferences, seminars, events, and media, we can empower others to make a difference. We also inform around specific topics of importance in the geographies that we work - using installation, graphic design, conversation, and participatory activities we share knowledge about specific subjects. We also provide similar services and technical assistance to partners to allow them to better communicate

INFORMING BUILDS KNOWLEDGE INFO GRAPHICS DATA INSTALL

5750 used infographics and public installations to inform the citizens of Dallas and raise awareness about the issue of homelessness.

STORM WATER COLONIA MANAGE

Colonia Planning & Implementation seeks to inform colonia residents and government officials about stormwater management strategies, regional and local stormwater challenges, and opportunities to design improvements though LID.

STATISTICS CONTACT SHARE DIRECTORY

The Neighborhood Directory shares the vital statistics about Dallas’ neighborhoods and contact information for existing community groups.

METHODS WORK STORIES ISSUES

Conferences allow [bc] to share our work and methods with a variety of professional and community audiences, raising awareness of what we do and helping others take on issues of importance in their cities and neighborhoods.

GUIDES TOOLS PEOPLE PLACE

POP Project Guides inform community members and professionals of how we use different tools/projects to meet specific needs with their neighborhoods.

ACTIVATING

INFORMING PRINCIPLES • Presents our voice as an experts in the areas that we work and topics relevant in the geographies that we work.

• Shares important data, research, and tools to help support neighborhood based work.

• Connects our work to others engaged in similar projects across the country and world.

Informing finds venues to share our projects and elevate issues that we feel are important to the communities we work with. This can present the results and impacts of ongoing projects, taking the form of research publications, presentations, advocacy, and design. Informing can be the start of a project, raising awareness and generating support or it can extend the impact of a project beyond official completion to influence future projects or others working on similar issues.

5750 installation at Dealey Plaza

Community members learning about flooding

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HOW IS INFORMING DONE? bcSHOPFRONT Shopfront invites speakers to share information about their work and research, broadening knowledge about Public Interest Design and a range of city building issues. To make these accessible to the public [bc] opens its offices to create a venue and chance for participation across a wide spectrum of ideas.

SHARING KNOWLEDGE • Presents a wide range of design and research to the public.

• Invites prominent practitioners to share best practices.

• Opportunity for [bc] staff and fellows to present research and gain experience in public speaking.

Maurice Cox presenting at bcSHOPFRONT

BUILDING COMMUNITY HEROES bcHEROES shares locally nominated community heroes that make our cities what they are and raising awareness about important issues being tackled by citizens around Texas.

Completed to coincide with Martin Luther King Jr. Day each year the bcHEROES baseball card series celebrates a wide range of pioneers, advocates, and everyday community members that make a difference in our lives.

CELEBRATING PEOPLE • Using popular culture and graphic design to celebrate and inform about community heroes.

• Participating in a wider program to celebrate service to

2016 buildingcommunityHEROES cards

communities.

• Share information across geographies where we work.

RAPIDO TOURS After the construction of the Rapido homes the team shares the outcomes and recommendations of the pilot program with decision makers and interested parties by bringing them to tour the RAPIDO prototypes and presenting the project.

ON THE GROUND EXPERIENCE • The importance of learning about a project, while

experiencing it on the ground.

• Project team can influence wider conversations about an issue.

• Using design and physical construction to influence policy.

Touring the RAPIDO Core

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LUCHA representatives informing residents and identifying drainage issues

EQUITY IN POLICY

THE LUCHA PROCESS

Land Use Colonia Housing Action [LUCHA], a partnership of organizations and colonia representatntes, seeks to build capacity among residents to identify neighborhood challenges, analyze problems, and begin to develop and advocate for solutions. Through months of training/education and discussions, with support from local and regional experts, residents are informed about governance, drainage, public services, housing, planning, and development, in order to identify neighborhood challenges, and develop and advocate for solutions.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

through community trainings & public hearings colonia residents helped identify priorities

a partnership was formed between communities, designers, organizers, builders, & legal advocates

MODEL COMMUNITY PLANS CREATED

plans highlighted the need for increasing residents power within organizing efforts five topics - governance, housing, public services, drainage, & planning become the focus

This informing effort seeks to give residents the tools that they need to engage in infrastructure and long-range planning efforts at the local and state level. In areas that have in some cases never had the most basic living necessities, such as potable water and sewer systems, electricity, paved roads, and safe and sanitary housing, informing residents of the ways they can advocate for their needs across such a wide variety of issues is incredibly important. It requires not only specific knowledge on an issue, but an organizing structure and materials to train others to amplify local voices.

DEVELOPMENT OF STRATEGIES

mapping of the topics identified specific issues & locations within colonias identifying & gathering local/regional/ national experts to inform residents development of resident organizing strategies to advocate for their priorities

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

build colonias residents capacity to advocate for & implement projects

CELEBRATING EQUITY BY BUILDING KNOWLEDGE & GRASSROOTS LEADERS

continuing to refine and implement topics of model plans through a priority list develop tools for colonia residents to continue to organize for future projects

LUCHA training

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www.bcWORKSHOP.org

WHY IS INFORMING IMPORTANT? Informing shares the impact of the work that we do and the data that justifies it. It allows us to learn from others in the field, share best practices, celebrate our successes, and learn from our failures. This process gives our projects and programs the ability to interact across geographies and evolve through critique and testing by others. Outside of project work, informing centers on awareness raising around specific issues from homelessness to food insecurity to storm water planning. Informing expresses what is important to us as professionals and an organization. It is not a process of selling an idea or project, but sharing work, ideas, and data.

WHY SHOULD YOU INFORM? Informing shares passions, new discoveries, and lifelong pursuits in strategic and focused ways. It can be a path to new opportunities and partnerships, because in its best form informing inspires others to do their own work to better our cities and neighborhoods. With this comes the acknowledgement that when we inform the information we present should be based on data, observations, and the recorded impacts of our work.

WHAT ARE THE OUTCOMES? The act of informing moves the impact of projects beyond the neighborhoods and communities where they take place.

It can result in publication, awards and recognition, and most importantly learning about successful practices, potential pitfalls, and ways to improve our work with communities.

Informing is a key part of the process of refining, expanding, and transforming practice because it allows for constructive and critical feedback. It should be done for a specific purpose, making your and the professions future work better.

Wanda Dye presenting at the bcSHOPFRONT Design Sketch night

Learning about the benefits of active transportation

David Perkes presenting at bcSHOPFRONT

The buildingcommunityWORKSHOP is a Texas based nonprofit community design center seeking to improve the livability and viability of communities through the practice of thoughtful design and making. We enrich the lives of citizens by bringing design thinking to areas of our cities where resources are most scarce.

To do so, [bc] recognizes that it must first understand the social, economic, and environmental issues facing a community before beginning work.

Thank you to all of our partners and the funders of the projects detailed in this guide. Most importantly, to all of our neighborhood partners, community members, and volunteers who make this work possible, we could not have done any of it without you.

ACTIVATING ANALYZING INFORMING MAKING MAPPING STORYTELLING

www.bcWORKSHOP.org/informing