This document outlines the Amplifying Creative Communities project in New York City led by the Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability Lab at The New School. The project aims to retain the traditional population in the Lower East Side neighborhood facing gentrification by stimulating local job creation and amplifying creative communities. It will map social innovation cases, co-design a toolkit for local organizations, and support two local projects - Green Oasis Garden and The Lower East Side Girls Club. The toolkit will include tools to observe, communicate, start up, engage, and synergize community efforts.
2. Promoter(s) DESIS Lab The project Amplifying Creative Communitiesisfundedby The Rockefeller Cultural Innovation Grant 2009 and led by The New School’s Design for Social Innovation and SustainabilityLab (DESIS Lab). Project partners are the Lower East Side Ecology Center, GreenmapSystems and IDEO and issupportedby DESIS international network.
3. 1.1 Context The Lower East Side neighborhood The LES is a neighborhood in the Southeastern of the NYC borough of Manhattan. It has traditionally been an immigrant, working class neighborhood, but it has undergone rapid gentrification in recent years.
5. 1.2 Main problem Main Problem How to retain the traditional (diverse and active) population in the LES? How to stimulate local job creation as a possible response to gentrification and generating a new (local) social economy?
6. 1.3 Framework project: vision and goals Goals Stop the processofgentrification Amplyfing creative communitiesas a meantoretaintraditional people toleave the neighborhood Vision middle organizations can become amplifiers (or social innovation hubs) beyond their initial scope (e.g. environmental justice, etc)
7. 1.4 Framework project: strategy Hypothesis: Can middle organizations become amplifiers (or social innovation hubs) beyond their initial scope (e.g. environmental justice, etc)?
8. CC CC CC CC CC CC 1.5 Framework project: structure Members of the DESIS Network : share expertise and experiences, collaboration opportunities Creative Communities (CC) will flourish Local partners in each neighborhood: permanent hubs for the development of new Creative Communities DESIS Network CC LOWER EAST SIDE ECOLOGY CENTER CC NYC Cases GREEN MAP DESIS Lab 1st amplification CC DESIS Archive (Europe, China, Brazil, India, Africa… NON-PROFIT IN BROOKLYN /QUEENS Green Map: digital tool for mapping Creative Communities CC IDEO 2nd amplification CC IDEO: co-design the design toolkit for each neighborhood
9. 1.5.1 Framework project: action 1 Parsons students will research 18 cases Researching social innovation cases in the LES “snowball” research
10. 1.5.2 Framework project: action 2 Green Mapping Social Innovation Cases in the LES 44+ community gardens in the Lower East Side Other social innovation areas: Youth empowerment, Housing, Food, Info sharing, Commodities exchange/sharing,
11. 1.5.3 Framework project: action 3 Design Toolkit: Resource base for the local community organization
13. CC CC CC CC CC CC 1.6 Framework project: timeline Current framework progress Members of the DESIS Network : share expertise and experiences, collaboration opportunities Creative Communities (CC) will flourish Local partners in each neighborhood: permanent hubs for the development of new Creative Communities DESIS Network CC LOWER EAST SIDE ECOLOGY CENTER CC NYC Cases GREEN MAP DESIS Lab 1st amplification CC DESIS Archive (Europe, China, Brazil, India, Africa… NON-PROFIT IN BROOKLYN /QUEENS Green Map: digital tool for mapping Creative Communities CC IDEO 2nd amplification CC IDEO: co-design the design toolkit for each neighborhood
14. 2. Local project: examples 1. Green Oasis Garden 2. Next step: The Lower East Side Girls Club
15. 2.1 Framework project: Local project 1 Started in 1981.Ex-marine lived next to abandoned lot. With a group of friends cleared the lot and began a garden. Based on two goals: to create a place to celebrate the arts, and to provide a healthy environment for neighborhood children. Green Oasis Garden
16. 2.2 Local project 1: context and main problem Mainproblem There is no “typical user.” The user group has changed a lot over the years. With changing ethnicities in the area, community interaction with the garden has changed. Make visible the smaller organized activities and the non –organized activities. Context Located in LES aneighborhood in the Southeasternof the NYC boroughof Manhattan. Boundariesas source ofcontroversy Gentrification
17. 2.3 Local project 1: vision and goals Goal Understand the community Fix the community beyond its hero Amplifying the community at the scale of the territory Vision Introduce the community in a amplification process that will lead to make it visible, indipendent, accessible and stable.
18. 2.4 Local project 1: the strategy Hypothesis: Can LESEC become the amplifier (or social innovation hubs) beyonditsinitialscope (e.g. environmental justice, etc)?
20. 2.5 Next step The Girls Club has programs to build “ethical,” entrepreneurial and environmental awareness. The organization gives young girls and teens job training. The Lower East Side Girls Club
24. 3.2 Co-design tools and activities Exhibiting: a dialogue with local residents about local and international social innovations Interactive green map International cases Social innovation cases: Community gardens Design workshop Exhibiting: a dialogue with local residents about local and international social innovations Below the radar innovations: the heroes
46. OBSERVING | Tools Locast Locast Civic Media is a mobile & web platform to engage citizenship in the process of collecting, reporting and disseminating news and information related to the urban environment.
47. OBSERVING | Tools Diaries Self reporting observation activities aiming to capture the subjective experience of a person in a specific situation or in his/her everyday life, by using traditional diaries, notebooks and camera. User diaries is a design tool to gain insight into patterns of behavior.
48. COMMUNICATING | Tools 311 Online 311 is New York City's online Web site and phone number for government information and non-emergency services.
49. COMMUNICATING | Tools Not For Tourists Not For Tourists is a growing series of guides to major cities. Unlike traditional tourist guide books, NFT guides are designed for people who live in or commute to their subject cities.
50. STARTING UP | Tools Instructables Web-based documentation platform where people share what they do and how they do it, and learn from and collaborate with others.
52. STARTING UP | Tools Service blueprint A tool for simultaneously depicting the service process, the points of user contact, and the evidence of the service from the user’s point of view.
53. SYNERGIZING | Tools Skillshare A temporary space for sharing practical skills and communal hands-on reciprocal learning experiences.
54. MOBILIZING | Tools Door-to-Door A sales technique in which a salesperson walks from one door of a house to another trying to sell a product or service to the general public.
