Category: Projects Spring 2017

Work Around Photos

Posted on by Cheong In

During our trip in Buffalo to cover Notre Dame Men’s Basketball for The Observer, we stayed at a hotel whose bathrooms had sliding doors that didn’t have functioning lock mechanism. There would be a handle that would pop out (as seen above), so we tied a towel around the towel rack and the handle to keep the door from sliding open.

When we returned from the trip, I did my laundry on Sunday, only to find out that the laundry machines were broken and couldn’t drain out the water. So I had to drip dry my clothes after the dryer couldn’t get all the water out. I didn’t have a drying rack, so I had to every possible edge to hang my clothes around my room.

Others in the dorm were less considerate, and hung the clothes over the pipes and the detergent vending machine to do the same.

Ethnography Summary

Posted on by Samantha

Ms. Missy

Date: 3/1/17

Type: Expert Interview

Location: BGC facility

Team Participants: Conducted interview alone

User Characteristics:

Middle Aged

Part time worker

African American

Works primarily with teens

Very energetic

The students respect and listen to her.

She has a positive view of the club.

Memorable quote from interview: “They like seeing the other teens. They grew up with some of these people but then went to different schools and BGC is a place they can meet up.”

Top 3 Learnings:

  1. The teens really enjoy being at the club. The ones that don’t go are not troubled; it is simply a matter of not being able to get teens to the club.
  2. There is a mutual level of respect among volunteers and students.
  3. They value role models like Ms. Missy who has a big impact on their lives.

Key Insight – (1) The BGC needs more volunteers because they are short on staff, however, it will be a challenge to get volunteers who are as good of a role model as Ms. Missy. (2) There is a very respectful environment in the teen club. The teens are very mature and listen to their elders. They value having a safe place to be.

 

Ms. Camille

Date: 3/1/17

Type: Expert Interview

Location: BGC facility

Team Participants: Conducted interview alone

User Characteristics:

She is the only full time worker

She is in charge of BGC.

Camille has a van that she drives to pick the kids up from school.

African American

She has a daughter in BGC

Memorable quotes from the interview:

“They are here to hangout with friends they haven’t seen. They also have structure and consistency.”

“We would have 13 buses coming from the middle and high schools and then they just stopped a couple years ago.”

Top 3 Learnings:

  1. BGC struggles with being understaffed.
  2. They do not have enough money for field trips.
  3. BGC has one fundraiser per year.

Key Insight – (1) The kids want more fieldtrips, but that requires more money. We can help them raise money for these activities. (2) We need to communicate with the South Bend bus company on why they stopped sending the buses to BGC after consistently sending buses for many years.

 

Eric

Date: 3/1/17

Type: Individual Interview

Location: BGC facility

Team Participants: Conducted interview alone

User Characteristics:

African American

Teenager

Joined BGC 2 years ago

Takes the van to the club

Memorable quote from the interview: “My mom felt like I needed something to do after school.”

Top 3 Learnings:

  1. He likes BGC because it is a good place to hangout.
  2. He enjoys crafts and the other activities offered.
  3. He mentioned that some teens he knows don’t go to the club because they can’t afford it.

Key Insight – Is there a way we can reduce the expenses for the members? Package deal or offer discounts?

 

Kaliyah

Date: 3/1/17

Type: Individual Interview

Location: BGC facility

Team Participants: Conducted interview alone

User Characteristics:

 Started the club at age 10

Takes the bus to the club

Teenager

African American

Memorable quote from the interview: “I like the environment. There are good people and we learn good habits.”

Top 3 Learnings:

  1. It was her parent’s decision to start her in the club, but she enjoys the environment.
  2. There are other programs teens go to after school instead of BGC such as the Y.
  3. She is not satisfied with the limited activities BGC offers. She desires more options.

Key Insight – BGC needs to find a way to offer more activities such as field trips to keep the teens satisfied. They could incorporate a “Bring your friend day” so teens who do not go to the club can get a sense of what it is all about and want to join.

 

 Angel

Date: 3/1/17

Type: Individual Interview

Location: BGC facility

Team Participants: Conducted interview alone

User Characteristics:

 Started BGC at age 8

African American

Teenager

Her aunt drops her off at BGC.

Memorable quote from the interview: “I wish there were more programs.”

Top 3 Learnings:

  1. She did not want to go home after school.
  2. She met a lot of people at the club.
  3. She wishes there were more programs in the club.

Key Insights – Somehow we need to incorporate more field trips/activities. This could also include improving technology and the different programs the kids use.

 

Ciarra

Date: 3/1/17

Type: Individual Interview

Location: BGC facility

Team Participants: Conducted interview alone

User Characteristics:

Started BGC at age 6

Teenager

She takes Camille’s van to BGC.

African American

She likes playing sports

Memorable quotes from the interview: “Some people say it’s boring.”

Top 3 Learnings:

  1. Gym time is a very big part of the day and the teens really like it.
  2. BGC is enjoyable for the teens.
  3. There needs to be more activities in the club.

Key Insights – Similar to what was said before, we need to help BGC improve the technology as well as raise money for field trips. We could also come to BGC with different ideas for activities to do with the teens.

 

Immersion Experience:

For the immersion, I talked to and was able to hangout with teens at BGC. Moving forward, I will continue my immersion through more structured activities, specifically crafts. I will work in the craft room with Sarah Christie.

Key Insights: (1) The kids are very respectful of Ms. Missy and Ms. Camille. They seem to enjoy being at BGC. In addition, the teens know each other very well and there seems to be a “family” like culture. The teens are also more mature than some high school kids that I know. (2) Although no one mentioned it in the interviews, I feel as though the teen portion of the club could be renovated. I think even simple redecorating could increase the “cool factor”. The club probably does not have the budget to undergo this type of project, so we would have to raise money.

 

Analogous Immersion:

Our team is benchmarking against other nonprofit organizations that have teen programs. We want to compare their transportation methods with that of BGC. In addition, we are comparing the facilities and the different activities that the other clubs offer. The two clubs we are benchmarking against are Kings and the Y. I interviewed Jesse who is the head of the YMCA teen program. I gained the following information:

 Jesse

YMCA St. Joseph county youth director

574-287-9622

 

Do you have a teen program?

They have a robotics program, which is promoted within the school. This is the school’s club robotics team.

 

How do the kids get to the club?

“The club is onsite at the school. They meet at the high school. We have our own bus and hire a driver to get kids home after the club.”

 

What schools do the kids come from?

Riley

 

What activities make up each day at the club?

“It is a robotics program”

The typical routine for the youth clubs held at the Y are as follows:

YMCA Curriculum

  1. Stem
  2. Homework help
  3. Snack time
  4. Family engagement
  5. Physical activity
  6. Literacy/subjects

“There is not a lot of free time.”

 

Other facts:

There is a group of Notre Dame kids who come to volunteer for tutoring. There are about 15-20 Notre Dame students volunteers.

There are also volunteer coaches.

None of the kids from the youth or preteen programs at the Y make the transition to robotics because they do not go to Riley and the program is only offered at Riley.

Key Insights: The BGC may not be able to work something out with South Bend transportation. They would either have to buy another vehicle that someone could drive, or have the club take place at the school.

Innovation Opportunities

Posted on by Wendy

#1) A lot of people, including myself, add these sticky card-holders to the back of their phones to hold credit cards and student ID’s. It seems most people do not want to have to carry anything more than their phones, which they are attached to anyway. Perhaps there’s an opportunity to digitize all of these cards so that the sticky-back is no longer necessary.

#2) There’s no good way to find parking in downtown Seattle. While I use Google Maps to navigate me all around town, it’s no help when it comes to finding parking in the city. There’s an opportunity for creating apps that help people find parking in crowded downtown areas.

Observed or Experienced Innovation Opportunities

Posted on by Therese

After the Tuesday snowstorm in New York, the city streets were cleared for the cars. All of that snow ended up in little hills on the edges of the sidewalk making it really hard for pedestrians to cross the street. At each crosswalk, little tiny pathways would form and everyone would cross single file in this little path to get to the other side of the street.

Instead of using the doorstop to actually keep the door open, my friend and her roommates at Princeton kept the doorstop in the corner of the door frame just to keep the door from automatically locking.

I wasn’t able to get a picture of the actual innovation opportunity. But while I was at the bakery buying this black and white cookie, the janitor was mopping the floor. The woman behind the counter put a paper towel under each foot to scoot over to where the cookies were stored before returning to the register.

Save

Card Sort Reflection-Yuwei

Posted on by Yuwei

In response to Sarah’s post, I would like to remind viewers that our card sort only represents a small portion of the homeless population in South Bend, and the results may not be true and applicable for others. The card sort may be skewed as result of:

  1. The interviewees’ reluctance to reveal the truth (We know substance abuse is a major problem, yet alcohol and drugs are ranked low in our card sort)
  2. Our sample population was mainly middle aged, White males at the United Church Soup Kitchen. They are most likely not representative of the South Bend homeless population.

Takeaway: We’ve realized our sample population is not diverse enough to be representative of the general South Bend homeless population. Therefore, we either need to reach out to other minorities, or narrow the scope of our project to fit our research.

Gallery Day Reflection – Parker

Posted on by James

Additional Takeaways: from Suzanna and Cherri

  • Need to interview homeless people of differing demographics (i.e. women, African-American)
  • Need to define chronic homelessness
  • Need to hone in on one specific group of the homeless population, instead of trying to analyze the entirety of the group (i.e. mentally ill, alcohol abuse, opioid abuse)
  • What role has trauma played in their lives?
  • Do these men/women have ID’s?
  • Need to further assess the competency of the educational programs offered

Analogous Immersion Reflection

Posted on by James

In his earlier blog post, Matt’s description of the difficulty we experienced moving people into “permanent housing” was spot on. The limited resources that the simulation provides creates a major roadblock that we believe is similarly experienced by homeless support systems throughout the country.

The one portion of the simulation that was not taken into account was the challenge of working with homeless people individually and looking at their individual needs. From the research we have collected, every homeless individual has different needs, thus intensifying the challenge of moving the entire homeless population into permanent, let alone temporary, housing.

No simulation can be perfect, but we thought it was important to note the other factors that contribute to the difficulty in delivering permanent housing.

Card Sort Reflection

Posted on by James

To piggyback on Sarah’s prior blog post on the card sort, I wanted to note a key takeaway for the responses we received ranking the importance of “resources.” Oak Lawn, which is a local institution in Elkhart that provides mental health and addiction treatment services, was ranked last on the list. We found this interesting because of the large percentage of the South Bend homeless population that struggles with mental health and addiction issues. Our focus group noted the importance of immediate resources, like Social Services and Soup Kitchens, but they did not value the longer-term solutions as highly. Obviously immediate resources are necessary for day-to-day survival, but it was interesting to see a significantly decreased emphasis on the importance of the long-term horizon. Their list of responses definitely begs the question, “Is this homeless group not seeking attention for mental health and addiction issues? Or is it too difficult to both seek attention and get by day-to-day?”

 

Workarounds – Parker

Posted on by James

Parker’s Workarounds:

#1: Although challenging to see because the picture is tiled to the left, the cardboard box is taped over the window above our door to block out the early morning light.

#2: My dog recently injured her leg, and to keep her from reinjuring herself, we attempted to build an enclosure in my backyard. When we ran out of fence, instead of purchasing more, we decided to use 2 lawn chairs to finish the area.

#3: While perusing through my dorm, I noticed another student propped his door open with his shoe because he was tired of it slamming closed. Pretty smart because the slamming can be quite disturbing.

Work arounds

Posted on by Wendy

I use my coat hanger as a convenient place to keep my tennis racket.

My friends use a broken hanger as a roller/holder for their paper towels. It is surprisingly easy to use and change.

A makeshift holder taped to the door that my friends use to hold markers for the whiteboard. The alternative was to balance the markers on top of the board and hope they don’t fall.