we have a voice!

2

3

CONTENTSTABLE OF

Foreword

Introduction

Schools

Beach High

Groves High

Savannah High

Synthesis

Opportunities

Gatorball Academy

Conclusion

Our Team

Thank You

4

6

8

10

38

64

80

86

88

104

106

108

Groups make change

4

5

FOREWORD1.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 higher-

education 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

DMGT 740SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES IN DESIGN

W. 1 W. 2 W. 3 W. 4 W. 5 W. 6 W. 7 W. 8 W. 9 W. 10

WINTER QUARTER AT SCAD | 2013

TUES, JAN 8 THURS, MAR 14

GATEWAY 1frog PrincipalDesigners leavesSavannah

GATEWAY 2Early research givesway to CATimmersion

PRONG 1

PRONG 2

PARTNERS

GATEWAY 3Synthesis of CAT findings,early research + forward directionof Gatorball

ERIN SANDERSSCAD Visit

DAVIDSHERWINSCAD Visit

DAVIDSHERWINSCAD Visit

GATEWAY 4Transition CAT Teams

FROG FRIENDS

GATORBALL ACADEMY

FIELD OF PLAYNate, Marina, Katie, Alex

FIELD OF PRACTICECarol, Naz, Robynn, Eric

GROVES HIGH

BEACH HIGH

SAV HIGH

CLASS ONE/GROVES | THURS. JAN 24

CLASS ONE/BEACH | WEDS. JAN 23 Professor visit/GROVES | TUES. JAN 22

CLASS ONE/SAV. HIGH | MON. JAN 28

Marina, Eric

Nate, Naz, Alex

Katie, Carol, Robynn

Research/GBA

Research/secondary

Design Development

P P P P P

P P PP

ORIGINSIn response to SCAD’s Design Ethos DO-ference, frog proposes a piloting of their Community Action Toolkit (CAT) within the Waters Avenue community. Gatorball Academy, a non-profit organization that has both served the Waters Avenue Commu-nity and participated in the Design Ethos DO-ference, facilitates access to classes in three Savannah high schools for a Sustainable Practices class taught at SCAD.

PRONG 2 OBJECTIVE: Enhance information flows that improve the efficacyof Gatorball Academy.

PRONG 1 OBJECTIVE: Through participatory design, train high school students toleverage the power of group action as a tool for creating positive change in theircommunity, with an eye toward long-range skill building and collaboration.

PROCESSNine graduate students delve into a complex process of weaving two ‘participatory design’ actions together. First, we facilitate students in three Savannah High Schools through the application of CAT (PRONG 1). Then, through design management tools and processes, we provide insights into the barriers to growth for the small yet ambi-tious non-profit organization Gatorball Academy (PRONG 2).

6

7

INTRODUCTION2.Let’s talk about honest communication. Let’s talk

about how things that affect our lives the most are

sometimes things we want to talk about the least. Let’s

talk about how personal empowerment rarely comes

with big, dramatic splashes, but instead usually sneaks

up on us in the most unexpected ways, and through

the most unlikely individuals. Let’s talk about the power

of sharing with people we learn to trust…not blindly

trust, but trust enough to open up enough in order

to let something unexpected happen. Let’s talk about

how we become who we are by doing.

But let’s also talk about realistic expectations. Let’s

talk about how a life doesn’t usually change in any

one, glorious burst, but instead changes in the many

individual moments of being. Let’s talk about how the

small, quiet choices that we all make can either slowly

build up or slowly break down other things in our lives.

Let’s talk about how living a life we desire is always

defined by moment, after moment, after moment of

trying…and finding others to help us keep believing.

For the last ten weeks, students from 3 of Savannah’s

public high schools and a graduate class at the

Savannah College of Art and Design have been

learning to trust not only one another, but the notion

that creative discussions which remain upbeat yet

sincere can nurture a sense of common purpose. The

journey that’s represented in this book emerged from

experiences between individuals who met during the

build-up to Design Ethos 2012, SCAD’s conference

on design and social innovation. The conversations

have continued since then, leading to a next point

which this book explores, where Savannah high school

students have taken ownership of their own future by

considering the futures of others around them.

The journey began with many questions. Could

designers new to social innovation facilitate the

emergence of leadership skills in a group of high

school students? Could frog’s Community Action

Toolkit be successfully adapted to the limited time

frame that a high school classroom operates under?

What insights could be gleaned by working with more

than one class? What modifications, abridgements and

supplements to the CAT might be necessary? Could

the application of the tool under these conditions

provide actionable insights to a youth leadership

organization? Could these insights benefit the strategic

direction of such an organization?

These questions have been posed, as have many

others. And while we don’t have all of the answers,

neither have we run out of time. Individuals new to

the conversation since the beginning of this academic

quarter are now conduits for further conversations.

More questions will arise; more insights discovered.

Let’s continue the conversation. Let’s talk.

Prof. Scott Boylston

Savannah College of Art and Design

8

9

SCHOOLSOn the website of the Savannah-Chatham County Public School System, we find

their official mission and vision.

Mission: To ignite a passion for learning and teaching at high levels.

Vision: From school to the world: All students prepared for productive futures.

The three SCCPSS high schools, Beach, Groves, and Savannah High, demonstrated

these values and more during the six-week collaboration with graduate students at

the Savannah Collage of Art and Design. During this period, three SCAD students

facilitated a sophomore through senior year marketing class at Beach, two facilitated

a class at Groves, and three students worked with a larger group of volunteer

students at Savannah High. The following section will describe, in detail, the unique

paths each group navigated using the Collective Action Toolkit as their compass.

3.

10

11Beach High School

Three designers walked into Beach High School hoping we would be working

with bright young minds ripe for exploring a new way of thinking. We were not

disappointed. Not only did the students break new ground but we, as designers

of varied backgrounds and skill sets, deeply enjoyed growing our new found

facilitation techniques with Frog’s Collective Action Toolkit.

The following pages document our time with eleven sophomore, junior, and

senior marketing students. We started with a simple question:

“What change do you want to see in your community?”

Facilitators: Naz Mirzaie, Alex Pappalardo, Nathan Sundberg

Ms. Wilson

Marketing Class, M, W 9:15-10:10 am

students # 11

It’s a Great Day to be a Beach Bulldog!

Skill Share Define Your Problem Ripple Effect Setting an Agenda Jam Session

SUB

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IVIT

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NE

XP

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WH

AT

WE

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Class 1 1-23-13

The students were really excited about working with us!

Find True North

The space is challenging!

Ms. Wilson is really interested and likes to help.

Class 4 2-4-13Class 3 1-30-13 Class 6 2-11-13Class 5 2-6-13Class 2 1-28-13

Two Activities

The space is a big challenge for our work.

They are more comfortable with sharing than we thought.

Having the teacher helped.

Heavy facilitation is helpful!

Time frame

We have to narrow down our steps and adapt the activity based on time and content.

They want to help the whole world!

They do not like to do homework, even when the teacher asks them.

Small group discussions are more productive than in larger groups.

It is hard for them to choose between two interesting topics.

They are deeply connected to both topics.

They really trust us!

The class tends to follow the ideas of a dominant student

The interests and skills of each student.

School lunch, commercials, and pizza are among the most favorite topics.

Second chances,

Lowering violence, and Better security at the school are our new topics.

Violence and fitness are two topics.

They wrote down all their questions about the topics.

Main questions (challenges) for their selected topics

They chose their initial solutions and the people they need to ask for help.

The majority wants to work on violence because they believe it is engaged in their daily life.

They have talked about the topic outside of class time.

We want to respond to their trust. Share all the work they have done till now with them. As homework, ask them to engage with others out of class.

We need excitement and action in the class.

We will focus on idea generation.

Consider two or one topic for the class?

Ask individual opinions

Determine main goal

Separate friends, Create the required trust, have Individual Conversations

Approach problems from different angles, Help them to think more in-depth

Selecting the problem they would like to work on!

Our approach ranges from individual concerns to collective concerns

What do you want to know?

invented activities modified activities

12

13

ge

Interview 101 Stroyboarding Divide and Conquer Light, Camera, Action!Practice &

Presentation

The majority of the class forgot their homework. So, after a quick conversation we chose:

Because two of students were absent, we divided them in two groups instead of three. So, we just covered two activities of violence week.

Individual activities better enable students to express themselves.

We Saw, We Heard

Class 7 2-13-13 Class 10 2-25-13Class 9 2-22-13Class 13 3-6-13

Class 11 2-27-13Class 8 2-20-13

They were really interested in interviewing techniques.

They shared personal stories.

To be quick on our feet.

A back up plan is essential.

Work with what we have.

Do not depend on students doing their homework.

They are not interested or are not familiar with planning details!

They were surprised by the amount of the work they need to do!

They definitely have a leader.

They decided on the person they want to interview and formulated questions. They learned that it is OK to not have an instant opinion

“Tell me more.”

They planned every day of their violence week.

They are planning to talk to the principal.

baking and t-shirts activities have been planned in detail.

We need to find a way for writing a proposal in the class.

We need to practice the presentation for the principal.

We will help them to be more realistic about the details of violence week. Explain that we will start on planning one day and go from there. (small steps toward a big target)

Ask them to analyze other people thoughts and perspectives

First paragraph of violence week proposal, the consolidated storyboard, and delegation of all the responsibilities for each student based on day

We need to finish the proposal.

They need to practice presenting their responsibilities for the principal, so lights, camera, action will be a good choice.

We had to work in the computer classroom, so did not have a chance to post all previous papers on the wall.

5 students were absent, so we had to spend time re-delegating responsibilities for each day!

Lights, camera, action and its focus on conflict, character, concept, and conclusion was really helpful for them to wrap their minds around their responsibilities. This activity, in these situations, is more productive than divide and conquer.

Review what we have done and practice with them to present their parts.

Show them how much they have accomplished!

Class #13 could be named the class of surprises and memorable achievements!

The students thoroughly and deeply have been engaged with the class!

All the students had made a serious connection to the topic. They presented their parts enthusiastically, shared personal insights and gave impressive reasons to the principal for their activities

Class 12 3-5-13

The principals was deeply impressed by the work and process the students have been following and approved their “Violence Free Week” proposal. Students will continue to work on the week in their marketing class with Ms. Wilson. The “ Violence Free Week” will happen in April!

We will visit the school next week to give them individual hand outs and a poster of the class process.

Second paragraph of proposal, individual responsibilities a have been assigned and they have begun designing their contribution to the presentation.

Storyboarding II

INTRODUCTION DESIGN FROG & NIkE FOUNDATION SkILL SHARE HOMEWORk

Our first class featured Gator Rivers and Debra Hasan from Gatorball Academy

as guests. After a short introduction of the guests to the students, we took a

couple of minutes to share information about the CAT and the connections

between the CAT, and design in general, to students’ lives. We started with this

question:

“What comes to your mind when you think of design?”

We explained the nature of problem solving in design and then introduced frog

and the Nike foundation. The students became really excited after watching the

Nike “Girl Effect” movie. We asked them to individually write down their skills,

likes, and a descriptive doodle of their personality. After making sure that every

student was ready, they shared their papers first in small groups and then for

the whole class.

Introductions

Skill share

SkILL SHARE

As a group, each member shares uniqueskills and then decide about the skills they might need for reaching to their goals.

Class 1 1-23-13 Class 4 2-4-13Class 3 1-30-13 Class 6 2-11-13Class 5 2-6-13Class 2 1-28-13

fold along line

frog collective action toolkit www.frogdesign.com/CAT

BUILD ACTIVITY 1

skill shareEncourage your group members to share their unique

skills—and determine what skills they may need to

reach their goals.

time

45 min. with a team of

5 people

roles

Participants, 1 facilitator,

1 recorder

materials

Printer-size paper (8.5” x 11”),

pens, camera

optional: stickers, photos,

markers, colored paper

where to next?

Try another Build Activity like ‘Rings of Connection‘

to determine who your group members might know

who have desired skills.

Rings of Connection

BUILD ACTIVITY 1

Hand out two sheets of paper per group

member. On the first sheet, have each

person write:

• The name they’d like the other group

members to call them

• The skills and talents they have and

believe are relevant

• One recent accomplishment

1

On the second sheet of paper, ask each

person to create something that expresses

who they are and what they like. For exam-

ple, they could create a drawing or a collage.

But group members don’t have to use the

paper. They could also make a skit, a dance,

sing a song about themselves, and so forth.

2

Ask each group member to share their

first page and whatever they made on the

second page. Take notes about what they

share, and consider taking pictures as

they present so everyone in the group has

a record of who each person is for future

group members.

3

4 Once everybody has shared, ask people

to put up their two sheets of paper on the

wall. Lead a discussion with the group and

capture on a large piece of paper:

• The types of skills your team has a lot of

• The skills your team still needs

Keep this visible where you meet, so group

members are reminded of these skills.

BUILD: Skill Share

BUILD: Skill Share

BUILD: Skill Share

BUILD: Skill Share

BUILD: Skill Share

14

15

Class 7 2-13-13 Class 10 2-25-13Class 9 2-22-13 Class 11 2-27-13Class 8 2-20-13

Skill share papers

Class 13 3-6-13

Class 12 3-5-13

The class divided into groups of three and talked about the problems they

wanted to work on. Each group then agreed on their favorite topic and

created a skit to present it to the class.

Group 1: What college I am going to? ****

Group 2: Commercial: food does not come out the way you see it on TV. **

Group 3: Pizza does not look as good as it does in the picture *****

Afterwards, all the problems were posted on the wall, and students voted for

their favorite ones by putting a star next to it.

A Slice of Life DEFINE YOUR PROBLEM

The group will divide into smaller groups. The smaller groups will decide a problem they want to solve and its related questions to be answered. Then they will play a skit to present it to the whole group. Finally the group will be agreed on the project they want to address.

Class 2 1-28-13

fold along line


CLARIFY ACTIVITY 2

define your problemDefine the problem your group wants to tackle and

establish key questions to answer along the way.

time45 min. for a team of

3 people, add 5 mins.

each additional team

rolesParticipants, 1 recorder,

1 facilitator

materialsPrinter-size paper (8.5”

x 11”) or larger, pens

Optional: camera, markers

where to next?

Try another Clarify activity like ‘Ripple Effect’ to see

what impact you’d like to have with this project.

Ripple Effect

CLARIFY ACTIVITY 2

Divide your group into teams of three

people. Hand each team a piece of paper

and ask them to write the most important

problem their group is trying to solve, plus

one to three key questions the team needs

to answer to tackle this issue.

1

Give each team 10 minutes to make a skit

that illustrates their problem. Teams can

use whatever props they can find where

they meet.

2

Have each team perform their skit. After

each performance, have the audience

guess the problem they tried to illustrate.

Ask each team to read aloud and post

their problem and question sheet.

3

After every team has gone, ask everyone

to put a star next to the problem they feel

is most important. Discuss the problems

that received the most stars and come

to an agreement on the problem and key

questions the project needs to address.

4

CLARIFY: De�ne Your Problem





NAME GAME DEFINE YOUR PROBLEM INTERVIEWS

Group 1(Haily, Deandre, Warren)

Group 2(Aaliyah, Mikeia, De Avery)

Group 3(Joseph, Alexis, Dante)

Pizza Hut does not deliver ***

My hair be done

Determining life on other planets **

What college I am going to ****

Body odor **** Cancer

Organizing ** Jacket zipper broke

Reminders Why we are so high *

Air-condition Why is cigs legal but weed not ****

Commercial: food does not come out the way you

see on TV. **

Pizza does not look good like in picture *****

School uniform colors

Why school is so long *

Why school is so long *

Blocks classes Why 5 days school but 2 days of weekend? **

School lunches ****

Why is Subway advertising a $5 long when it costs

$ 6.05? *


16

17

Define your problem- Practicing skits


The space with all the computers is really

challenging. The students can easily be

distracted from the activities. They feel too

comfortable in their spots and with their

friends. We need to separate them from

this space.

They do not think that much about

“serious” issues and perhaps don’t yet

realize the potential for their project!

Class 13 3-6-13

Class 12 3-5-13

Mind map activity for “Going to College”

The class started with a presentation about CAT and how it can be helpful to

the class. It was followed up with a group created mind map about “What

college I am going to ****” (as a follow up of their previous session- define

your problem). Then, the group moved to a new room with a more traditional

space to work on the ripple effect activity. As a group, the students came up

with a topic they would like to tackle and developed a diagram of project

impacts in different levels.

Making Connections RIPPLE EFFECT

The group decide about the impacts they would like to have on their close friends, families, community or even the world.

Class 4 2-4-13Class 3 1-30-13 Class 6 2-11-13Class 5 2-6-13

PRESENTATION MINDMAPPING (RECAP PREVIOUS ACTIVITIES) RIPPLE EFFECT HOMEWORk

fold along line


CLARIFY ACTIVITY 1

ripple effectDecide what kind of impact you want your group to

have—from improving the lives of individuals in your

community to changing your country or the world.

time30 min. for a team of

3 people, add 5 mins.

each additional team

rolesParticipants, 1 recorder,

1 facilitator

materialsPrinter-size paper

(8.5” x 11”) or larger, pens

Optional: camera, markers

where to next?

Try another Clarify activity like ‘Define Your Problem’

to better understand the problem you want to solve.

Define Your Problem

CLARIFY ACTIVITY 1

Divide your group into teams of three

people. Hand each team a piece of paper

and ask them to write a question they’re

trying to work through at the top. Then

draw a circle in the center of the page that

contains the names of the group members.

1

Have each team write around the first

circle the effect they’d like to have on close

friends or family. Draw a larger circle around

these names and label it ‘individuals’.

2

Write the effects the team would like

to have on their community around the

individuals circle. Draw a larger circle

around these newly added affects and label

it ‘community.’ Continue the exercise for

the effects the team wants to have on their

country, nation, and world.

3

Ask everybody to post their Ripple Effects

on the wall and talk about their similarities

and differences. Choose a circle to focus

on and the effects you’d like to see. Write

these on a clean sheet of paper with when

you’d like to see this happen. Put this sheet

on the wall so the team can use it later.

4

CLARIFY: Ripple E�ect





The groups are working on their ripple effect diagrams. Students presented their work to the class

Class 1 1-23-13 Class 2 1-28-13

18

19

PRESENTATION MINDMAPPING (RECAP PREVIOUS ACTIVITIES) RIPPLE EFFECT HOMEWORk


Ripple effect- The first circle represents the participating students.

Class 13 3-6-13

Class 12 3-5-13

SeCOnD CHAnCeS

Direct effect

Community

Outside community

MikeiaDeuntrice

JerodeAlex

Ricky

People in our neighborhood

Daddy

Aunt tenesha

Opportunities to get jobs

Churches to thank God for

another chance

Moral boost

Hope

People who believe in you

Better community

Better economy

LOwerInG vIOLenCe

AaliyahDante

Deandre

Warren

FatherGrand-mother

Future daughter and

son

Boyfriend Girlfriend

Niece/nephew

Cousin

Direct effect

Community

Aunties

Brother & Sister

Mother

Pastor

Teachers

Principle(Mr.Muhommad,

(Mogwood, & Milton)

Neighbors(used to

be a polic & Mrs. Smart)

(Mrs. Young

Mrs. Curtis

Mr.

Simmons)

CanPark

CHVP

CBV

TVP

West SAVEast SAV

HVP

Hell hale

Governor

President

Judge

City council

B.O.E.

Commissioner

Mayor

People in

prison

Outside community

BeTTer SeCurITY AT THe SCHOOL

AlexisHailey

Joseph

Direct effect

Community

The stu-dents will

have better

behavior around the community

and the school.

It will create less stress and

worry in people.

The

school

security

will affect

the other

schools

The schools

in Savan-

nah will have

hope and

faith in the se-curity.

It will also keep the neighborhood safe for

the people.

CitySchool

Community

(School

alumni)

Neigh-bours

School neighborhood

Cousins

Teach-ers

Princi-ple

Sematha & Robert Myles

Sisi, Ivana,

Grandparents on both sides

School companions

Friends

Aunts

Uncles

God family Sisters & brothers

Outside community

Homework presentation (ripple effect of lowering violence ) Sharing ideas with group in a circle

The class began with a presentation of their ripple effect activity homework.

It led to a very insightful discussion in class and the final topic that group

selected. In previous classes, we had heard that pizza delivery was an issue for

the community, but in this class we discovered the reason: deliveries are often

robbed, so restaurants no longer deliver to certain areas of Savannah. The

discussion continued into the true north activity. Each member stood in the

middle of a circle and picked one of the topics that had been posted on the

wall and shared her/his reasons.

Honing In FIND TRUE NORTH

The group stands in a circle and each member talks about the goals she wants to achieve. Then the group will decide the most favorite goals among all the members.

Class 4 2-4-13

HOMEWORk FIND TRUE NORTH WHAT DO YOU WANT TO kNOW?

what do you need to know?

Class 4 2-4-13

THE DISCUSSED TOPICS

• Fitness

• Lowering violence

• Second chance

• Better security at the school

Class 1 1-23-13 Class 3 1-30-13 Class 6 2-11-13Class 2 1-28-13 Class 5 2-6-13

20

21


what Do we need to Know?

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO kNOW?

Group members try get a better grasp of the topic by quick brainstorming about all the questions they need to answer.

The questions from “what do you want to know” activity

Fitness and Violence had been selected as the true north topics, then the class

was divided into two groups, each tackling one of the topics. They were asked

to write down questions about all the unclear aspects of the topic.

?? ?

Class 13 3-6-13

Class 12 3-5-13

We should ask more questions

and go in depth about their ideas,

such as:

“Why do you think like this?

Tell more about it!”

What seems like surface level

topics to us may actually go

much deeper and be much more

complex.

“You can’t take the hood out of people.”

“I do not want to get fat like my mon and aunt!”

We gave the students the list of the questions they had created in the previous

sessions and asked them to individually choose the two most important

challenges they need to begin. The results were the following four:

understandingthe Issues

SETTING AN AGENDA

The group discussed and decided the main challenges they want to work on and the required steps to take for these challenges.

Class 5 2-6-13

VOTING FOR YOUR FAVOURITE qUESTIONS SETTING AGENDA

fold along line


PLAN ACTIVITY 1

setting an agendaIdentify the most pressing challenges your team

needs to tackle, then agree on the steps you should

take to address them.

time40 min.

rolesParticipants, 1 recorder

materialsPrinter-size paper (8.5” x 11”)

or larger, pens

optional: camera, markers, Post-Its

where to next?

Try another Plan activity like ‘Divide & Conquer’ to

split up some of these tasks up between people.

Divide & Conquer

PLAN: Set an Agenda

PLAN ACTIVITY 1

Post one sheet of paper on the wall

and have everybody gather around it.

At the top of the sheet of paper, write the

following question: “What challenges are

we trying to solve right now so we can

accomplish our overall goal?” Have the

group members write answers to this

question underneath it on sticky notes.

1

Take each Post-It note and put it in the

center of a new sheet of paper. Answer the

following questions for that challenge:

• Why is this challenge important to solve?

• Who needs to be involved to solve it?

• When do we want to resolve it?

• What hurdles stand in our way?

• How can we remove those hurdles?

2

Take a step back and look at everyone’s

answers as a group. Ask these questions:

• Which challenges do you need to address

most urgently?

• What patterns or themes are visible

across all of these challenges?

• Do you see ways to resolve multiple

challenges with similar efforts?

3

From your group discussion, write down

the action items your team should take

on next to address the challenges you’ve

identified as most urgent.

4

Don’t forget to fill out a Learning Card when

you transition to another activity area.

When you’re done in this activity area: Try moving to Seek New Understanding

activities to determine who to talk to next,

or Imagine More Ideas to come up with

more solutions.

PLAN: Set an Agenda

PLAN: Set an AgendaPLAN: Set an Agenda

PLAN: Set an Agenda

• Why do people bring violence to schools?

• What it is the reason for violence?

• Why do people do not exercise?

• Why does the school not have a class that helps people get in shape?

Afterwards, the class was divided into two groups and picked two of the main

challenges to work with further.

Setting an agenda- The class is working in two groups on violence and fitness topics.

The time frame part of the

activities are hard for student to

understand and work with!

They are not aware of the impacts

they could have! Opening up the

discussions to detail planning is

really helpful!

“We only have McDonald’s in our neighborhood, so we don’t have healthy options”

Class 1 1-23-13 Class 3 1-30-13 Class 6 2-11-13Class 2 1-28-13 Class 4 2-4-13

22

23


Why is this challenge

important to solve?

Who needs to be involved to

solve it?

When do we want to resolve

it?

What hurdles stand in our

way?

How can we remove those

hurdles?

What are our Challenges?

WHAT IS THE REASON FOR VIOLENCE?

WHY DO PEOPLE BRING VIOLENCE TO SCHOOLS?

So that we can bring the violence to an end.

The city of Savannah, Church people, Police, People who want to see others change, Teachers, Parents, Instigators,

Gangs, and younger peers.

Movies, and TV shows, Games, Make videos, Encourage people, Do interview

with teachers and students

WHY DO PEOPLE NOT EXERCISE?

Because people can be healthy and in shape, fight with obesity, it

will help everyone

Because people can be healthy and in shape, fight with obesity, it

will help everyone

Nutrition teacher, School store

Lower self-steam, more technology, jobs, games, busy life, depressed,

time, kids, lazy

It is mandatory, kids have to participate in gym, students just go there and sit

there to escape classes.

Nutritionist

kids k-12 (Park), anti depressions, stop using technology, no

electricity, schedule, baby sitter

4th block people who pass go and help people who fails study for test, healthy

food from school store, Zumba

VIOLENCE FITNESS

Class 13 3-6-13

Class 12 3-5-13

* The students decided to change their topic from “why does the school not have a class that helps people get in shape?” to the above question.

WHY DO STUDENTS NOT USE THE EXERCISE CLASSES AT

SCHOOL?*

We started the class with a discussion about the necessity of working on one

topic due to the time limitations. Each student was asked to select between the

two final topics and shared his/her reasons with the class. Lowering violence

was a unanimous topic among the 11 students. They explained the topic is

important for them as it is an inescapable part of their daily lives.

Opportunities JAM SESSION

The group create ideas without any limitation and collectively sort them based on easy to difficult range.

Class 1 1-23-13 Class 3 1-30-13 Class 6 2-11-13Class 2 1-28-13

SELECT FINAL TOPIC FOR ALL THE CLASS (LOWERING VIOLENCE) JAM SESSION

fold along line


IMAGINE ACTIVITY 1

jam sessionCreate as many ideas as possible with your group,

exploring a range of different solutions and building

on each other’s ideas in a supportive manner.

IMAGINE: Jam Session

time

45 min.

roles

Participants, 1 facilitator

materials

Printer-size paper (8.5” x 11”)

or larger and smaller

sheets, pens

optional: camera, markers

where to next?

Try another Imagine activity like ‘Grow an Idea’

to bring one of these starred concepts into another

round of ideation.

Grow an Idea

IMAGINE ACTIVITY 1





Look at all of your group’s ideas that you’ve

captured to date. Identify a topic the team

would like to explore. A good topic will be

directly related to your goal, and will inspire

your group to immediately generate ideas.

1

Have the activity facilitator put a piece of

paper on the wall and draw a large arrow

on it. On one end of the arrow, write “Easy.”

On the other end, write “Impossible.”

2

3

4

Divide group into two teams. For 20–25

minutes, ask each team to write or sketch

ideas related to the topic on individual

pieces of paper. Create a range of ideas

that are possible, impossible and anything

in between. Be sure to give each idea a title.

When both teams are done, share the title

and a one-sentence description of each

idea with the group. Have the presenter to

pin the idea where it belongs on the Easy

to Impossible arrow. When everyone has

presented, ask them to put a star next to

the idea they’re most excited about. Ideas

with the most stars can be pursued.

When you’re done: Try out some Make

Something Real activities to bring your

ideas to life!



“So many people are being killed everyday!”

“I want to make sure my kid has a chance to walk freely in her neighborhood!”

Jam Session- The class is posting their ideas and discussing about their possibilities.

Jam Session- So proud of their achievements

Class 4 2-4-13 Class 5 2-6-13

24

25


BLOCk PARTY

FUNDRAISER

DRESS DOWN

FOR VIOLENCE

Easy ImpossIblE

PLAY

COMMUNITY

SERVICE

COMMERCIALS

CHURCH AFFAIRS

ASSEMBLIES OF FORMER GANGS OR VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE

COMMUNITY

GATHERING

CAMPAIGN

FOR VIOLENCE

DOWNTOWNSURVEY ON VIOLENCE

PUBLIC

SPEAkING

DESIGN T-SHIRTS

VIOLENCE WEBSITE

SCHOOL

EVENT-

FUND-

RAISER

SPEAk-

ERS IN

SCHOOL GUNS FOR

MONEY-PARk

EVENT

COOk OUT

TV SHOWS

BETTER

VERSION OF

2ND

AMENDMENT

VIOLENCE WEEk

BEYOND

SCARED

STRAIGHT

JUVIES OR

STUDENTS

GOING DOWN

WRONG PATH

NATIONAL

HUG DAY

PUBLIC SPANkING

FOR CRIMINAL

AND SUSPECTS

MORE POLICE

ENFORCEMENT

**

****

*

** *

**

**

** *

*

***

*

*

**

*

*

** ***

*

***

**

*

**

**

**

***

*** *

* * *** **

***

***

*

**

*

*

**

*

**

*

**

*

Class 13 3-6-13

Class 12 3-5-13

VIOLENCE

Students brainstorming interview questions

INTERVIEWING 101

Now that the students had cohered around a topic, we challenged them to

reach out beyond the classroom. The students brainstormed individuals within

their homes and/or larger community who they could interview to search

for insights and experiences that may help them better understand the issues

involved. They also wrote down potential questions for their interviewees.

After brainstorming, they broke off into pairs to role play and offer each

other feedback. Finally, the class came back together as a group to help each

individual further refine their interviewing technique. We gave out disposable

cameras at the end of class, and asked the students to document their

interviews over the weekend and to report to the rest of the class the following

Monday.

reaching Outward


INTERVIEWING 101

Plan an interview from start to finish, then go into your community and talk with people about issues that matter to them.

fold along line


SEEK ACTIVITY 2

interviewing 101Plan an interview from start to finish, then go into

your community and talk with people about issues

that matter to them.

time 1 hr. for a group of 10

rolesParticipants, 1 facilitator,

1 recorder


or larger, pens


where to next?

Try another Seek activity like ‘We Saw, We Heard’

to share what you discovered in your interviews.

We Saw, We Heard

SEEK ACTIVITY 2

Ask your individual group members to write

a list of people that struggle with issues

related to the goal you want to achieve.

Write down:

• Why you would want to talk with them

• What you would learn by talking to them

• Where you would want to meet with them

1

Divide your entire group into pairs. Ask the

people in each pair to read out loud each

list and select one of the people they would

like to interview. Ask the pair to write down

at least five questions they’d like to ask

that person at their interview. Encourage

each team to ask follow-up questions like

“Why?” to provide suprising insight.

2

Each pair will roleplay the interview. The

teammate who is being asked questions

will provide feedback about whether

the questions make sense and suggest

additional questions to ask. The pair will

update the interview questions accordingly.

3

Bring the entire group back together. Ask

each pair to roleplay their interview again,

soliciting feedback from the whole group.

Then task group members to do their

interviews when they leave the group meet-

ing, encouraging them to take good notes

at each interview to share with the rest of

the group.

4



When you’re done in this activity area: Try moving to Imagine More Ideas to

act on something in your interviews that

inspired a potential solution.

SEEK: Interviewing 101





Class 1 1-23-13

Students roleplaying interviews Students roleplaying interviews

26

27

Students role play their future interviews to get feedback from the class.


Students role playing interviews for the class Students role playing interviews for the class

Interviewing 101 was an activity in which most of

the students seemed to benefit from one-on-one

attention. Once they better understood that the

activity was designed simply to search for new

information, whatever that may be, they were able

to dive into the task.

Facilitation needs

We saw the students struggling to determine the

best questions for the interviews so we had a

mini-lesson on interviewing best practices.

On the white board in the front of the class, we

wrote:

Stay away from yes or no questions- It’s better

to ask, “yes, and...” or “Why?”

Ask “Tell me more.”

Class 13 3-6-13

Class 12 3-5-13

excerpt from one of the teams storyboards

HOMEWORk REVIEW STORYBOARDING

We ventured into the Make It Real activity section during our eighth session

at Beach. Unfortunately, only a couple of students had completed the

homework so we could not continue with our planned activity, We Saw, We

Heard. Instead, we went ahead with our backup activity, Storyboarding.

We started by gaining consensus about one of the most popular ideas from

the Jam Session with which to move forward during our short time together.

Almost unanimously, they chose to pursue the idea of Violence Week. Since

both groups from class five had mentioned that at some point they wanted

to speak to the principal, Mr. Muhammad, about their ideas, we framed the

activity as a tool for creating a tangible plan to present.

Drawing Ideas


STORYBOARDING 101

Create a visual story, much like a comic strip, that explains how an idea would impact people in your community over time.

Class 1 1-23-13

Students present their storyboards Students present their storyboards

fold along line


MAKE ACTIVITY 1

storyboarding 101Create a visual story, much like a comic strip, that

explains how an idea would impact people in your

community over time.

time

45 min. for a group of 5

roles


materials


or larger, pens

optional: camera, markers,

collage materials, e.g. photos,

magazines, colored paper,

stickers

where to next?

Try another Make activity, like ‘Write a Blurb,’

to shape the story you just drew into clear, crisp

statements you can share.

Write a Blurb

MAKE: Storyboarding 101

MAKE ACTIVITY 1

Divide your group into teams of one to

three people. Ask each group to select an

idea from a previous activity to storyboard.

They should discuss how to tell this idea in

a story to another person:

• Who are the main characters?

• What specific challenge is being solved?

• What steps do they go through?

1

2

Have the team illustrate each frame:

• First frame: Introduce the characters

• Second frame: Create a scene that shows

the problem where it happens

• Third frame: Show a close-up of one of

the characters using your idea

• Final frame: What happens after the

character uses it?

3

Have each group share their storyboards

and pin them up on the wall. Have a

discussion about what works about each

storyboard and what potentially is missing

that could expressed in a different way.

4

Post a large piece of paper for each team.

Have each group draw four storyboard

frames (squares) on the paper. They

should write a few words below each frame

to describe what should happen in the

scene they are about to draw or collage

from images in magazines. Follow the

outline included in Step 3.



When you’re done in this activity area:

Try moving to the Plan for Action activity

area to plan how and when you could

realize your idea for the community.





28

29

Storyboards for possible frameworks for violence week

Class 10 2-25-13Class 9 2-20-13 Class 11 2-27-13Class 8 2-18-13Class 7 2-13-13Class 13 3-6-13

Class 12 3-5-13

Students practicing presenting their storyboard

PEP TALk SCHEDULE REMINDER DIVIDE AND CONqUER RIPPLE EFFECT

To help the students start to think about the details of a very large and

ambitious project, we divided them into two teams and asked them each to

pick one activity from the whole of Violence Week to plan in detail. We urged

them to answer the big questions: Who, What, Where, When, Why and How.

Having these six questions written large on the board helped the students

maintain momentum throughout the somewhat unfamiliar and challenging

activity. They were also asked to delegate responsibilities for each part of the

days events.

At the end of class, each team practiced presenting their day (t-shirt or bake

sale) while Naz asked questions in the role of Mr. Muhammad .

Plan Refinement


DIVIDE AND CONqUER

Split your group into smaller teams that can plan and execute specific action items.

Class 1 1-23-13

fold along line


PLAN ACTIVITY 2

divide and conquerSplit your group into smaller teams that can plan and

execute specific action items.

time

1 hr.

roles


multiple recorders

materials


or larger, pens


where to next?

Try another Plan activity like ‘Set the Pace’ to

establish your future meeting schedules.

.

Set the Pace

PLAN: Divide and Conquer

PLAN ACTIVITY 2

1

Have someone from your team write these

task names on separate sheets of paper.

These will be different committees to take

care of a specific responsibilities for your

group. Ask people to write their initials

with the name of the committee they

want to join.

2

Split your group into their specific com-

mittees. Have them go to different parts of

the room and meet with their committee.

Ask the committee members to write

down the responsibilities, challenges and

goals they should tackle. If there is only

one person in a committee, they should

join another group.

3

Have each committee write down specific

tasks to help them reach their group’s

goals. Prioritize the activity list as a com-

mittee, taking at least 15 minutes to write

action items based on their top five to ten

priority tasks. Have team members initial

which action items they’ll take on. Then

have each team post and share their plan.

4

Gather your group around a sheet of

paper. Ask everyone to write on the sheet

every activity they’re doing right now to

help the group reach their shared goal.

Have the group look at all the activities

and identify which are similar and can be

grouped together. Give these similar tasks

a name. Keep it simple, like ‘recruiting.’




Try moving to Seek New Understanding

activities to determine who to talk to next,

or Imagine More Ideas to come up with

more solutions.





Students practicing presenting their storyboard

30

31


Class 12 3-5-13

Existing ideas for violence week

• Opening Assembly (Intro)

• Games

• Selling food

• Bake sale

• Play

• T-shirt station

• Pep rally/ music

• Lunchroom/ cookout

• Donations

• Public speaking

muffinscookies/ brownies

Doughnutscupcakes/cake

ice creamlemon squares

T-Shirts

To spread the word to everyone about stopping violence.

Hopefully, have the community and school support about stopping violence.

School courtyard

Go to Mr. Bonnell for t-shirt designs to print off press on.

Have the kids wear the t-shirts on Friday at the cookout!

Violence Education.We can put paper on these items,

stating facts.

We can get stuff from Sam’s.

We use the money from the bake sale to get the shirts.

Donations can come from our parents, the church, organiza-

tions, and teachers

During lunch hour

School courtyard

Thursday on 4th block and on lunch

FundraiserFundraiser

T-SHIRT SALEBAkE SALE

Item for sale?

Why?

When?

Where?

How?

A student writing a draft of the proposal

WRITE PROPOSAL CONSOLIDATE PREVIOUS STORYBOARDS PRESENTATION PRACTICE S

The students began by individually writing on post-its reasons why they want

to do Violence Week and how it will benefit participants. Then one student

volunteer, using the post-its for material, wrote the first half of the proposal for

the principal. Concurrently, using ideas generated from the two storyboards

from last session, the rest of the class created one comprehensive storyboard

outlining five days of activities for Violence Week.

At the end of class, each team presented their ideas both for feedback and as

practice for the upcoming presentation to Mr. Muhammad.

Proposal Creation PROPOSAL IDEATION AND MODIFIED STORYBOARDING

The group is split into two to plan different aspects of their presentation .

Students consolidating ideas and delegating responsibilities

fold along line


MAKE ACTIVITY 1

storyboarding 101Create a visual story, much like a comic strip, that

explains how an idea would impact people in your

community over time.

time

45 min. for a group of 5

roles


materials


or larger, pens

optional: camera, markers,

collage materials, e.g. photos,

magazines, colored paper,

stickers

where to next?

Try another Make activity, like ‘Write a Blurb,’

to shape the story you just drew into clear, crisp

statements you can share.

Write a Blurb


MAKE ACTIVITY 1

Divide your group into teams of one to

three people. Ask each group to select an

idea from a previous activity to storyboard.

They should discuss how to tell this idea in

a story to another person:

• Who are the main characters?

• What specific challenge is being solved?

• What steps do they go through?

1

2

Have the team illustrate each frame:

• First frame: Introduce the characters

• Second frame: Create a scene that shows

the problem where it happens

• Third frame: Show a close-up of one of

the characters using your idea

• Final frame: What happens after the

character uses it?

3

Have each group share their storyboards

and pin them up on the wall. Have a

discussion about what works about each

storyboard and what potentially is missing

that could expressed in a different way.

4

Post a large piece of paper for each team.

Have each group draw four storyboard

frames (squares) on the paper. They

should write a few words below each frame

to describe what should happen in the

scene they are about to draw or collage

from images in magazines. Follow the

outline included in Step 3.




Try moving to the Plan for Action activity

area to plan how and when you could

realize your idea for the community.





fold along line


MAKE ACTIVITY 3

write a blurbCraft a simple story that explains to other people

why your group’s idea is relevant, then practice sharing

it with others.

time1 hr. for a group of 5

rolesParticipants, 1 facilitator,

1 recorder


or larger, pens


where to next?

Try another Make activity like ‘It’s Like, It’s Not Like’

to help other people understand your group’s idea.

It’s Like, It’s Not Like

MAKE: Write a Blurb

MAKE ACTIVITY 3

Split your entire group into teams of three

people or less. Have each team select an

idea they want to work with. Multiple teams

can work on the same idea or different

ideas at the same time. (Note: This activity

can also be done by individuals rather than

teams, depending on how many people are

in your group.)

1

2

3

Ask each team to share their story. Then

have each team post their written story on

the wall. Gather the entire group around

each written story and talk about the ele-

ments of each story that stood out and the

qualities of a strong story. Have one of your

group members write down what worked

and what could be improved in each story.

4

Over 10 minutes, ask each team think

through and discuss:

• What the idea is

• Who the idea is for

• How it will change the community

• Why it will help the community

• When it will happen

• Where it will be used

Have each team write a one-sentence

description about why the idea is great.

Then each team should spend 20 minutes

writing a paragraph telling the story of

the idea. Experiment with the tone of your

story by pretending to be journalists, the

town preacher, your city’s mayor, and so

forth. Give your story a snappy title.



When you’re done in this activity area: Try moving to the Build Your Team activity

area to recruit more people for your group

using these stories.

MAKE: Write a Blurb

MAKE: Write a Blurb

MAKE: Write a Blurb

MAKE: Write a Blurb


32

33


It seems the students stay better focused

when in groups fewer than four. During this

activity, they lost focus early and had a hard

time getting back to the topic.

But, after reminded that they are working

together on their own idea for a project

for their classmates and that the success

depended solely on themselves, they got to

work and made impressive progress.

Class 13 3-6-13

Class 12 3-5-13

As one of us worked with Aaliyah to finish the proposal for the Violence Free

Week, the other group gathered to discuss our last CAT activity. Each student

chose one of the Violence Free days and then, as the presentations developed,

the information consisted of:

Conflict (the topic they want to address), Concept (the activities they propose

for their special day), Character (the people they need to be involved in their

proposed activity), and a Conclusion (The results they would like to pursue by

that activities).

Practice Makes Perfect

LIGHT, CAMERA, ACTION!

The members develop a story of their interested topic with including factors such as conflict, characters, concept, and Conclusion. Then the skits will be shared in group to get feedbacks.

PROPOSAL LIGHT CAMERA ACTION

fold along line


MAKE ACTIVITY 2

lights, camera, action!Use characters, scenes, and conversations to tell a

meaningful tale about your idea to an audience.

time

1 hr. for a group of 5

roles


1 recorder

materials


or larger, pens, camera

optional: markers

where to next?

Try another Make activity like ‘Prototype It’ to build

an idea from scratch.

Prototype It

MAKE: Lights, Camera, Action!

MAKE ACTIVITY 2

Split your entire group into teams of three

people or less. Have each team select an

idea they want to work with. Multiple teams

can work on the same idea or different

ideas at the same time. (Note: This activity

can also be done by individuals rather than

teams, depending on how many people are

in your group.)

1

2

3

4

Give each team ten minutes to decide how

to talk about their idea to other people

in the group through a story. Each team

needs to think about:

• Conflict: What problem you will address

• Character: The people helped by it

• Concept: How the idea should be shared

• Conclusion: Its larger impact on the world

Give each team 20 minutes to craft a three-

to five-minute skit that expresses their idea

through a story. Provide them an additional

five minutes after they’ve planned their skit

out to practice it and come up with a title

for it. Encourage each team to include all of

their team members in the skit and use any

relevant props.

Ask each team to perform their skit. As one

team shares their story, the other teams

should take notes, photograph, sketch,

or videotape the performance for future

reflection. After the skits, have a discussion

about what everyone learned about the

ideas in the stories and what it would take

to bring them further to life.




Try moving to the Seek New Understand-

ing activity area to determine how people

in the real world might use these ideas.





Instead of developing a skit,

we asked them to create a two

minute presentation which has

the conflict, concept, characters,

and conclusion factors, for the

meeting with principal.


34

35


Light, camera, action- Students are presenting their assignments to the class.

Class 13 3-6-13

Class 12 3-5-13


The class focused on reviewing the activities they have done during the past 11

classes. Afterwards, each student practiced alone, presented their part to the

class and received and offered feedback.

Preparing for the Big Day!

Getting ready for the big day!

OVERVIEW OF ALL THE PREVIOUS ACTIVITIES PRACTICING ROLES GETTING FEEDBACkS

Class 1 1-23-13

36

37


Class 12 3-5-13

Mr. Muhammad, the Beach high school principal, showed up to our class

before the students arrived with his laptop and notebook in tow. He seemed

enthusiastic and serious about the meeting. Nervousness was hidden behind

confident smiles; “Will all the hard work pay off?!”. Mr. Muhammad was greeted

and the presentation started with an overview of the process of the past 12

classes by Hailey and then each student presented their roles for Violence Free

week to Mr. Muhammad. He listened patiently to the presentation, said that

he is really impressed by all of the work, and the process the students went

through and then asked some questions. He asked: “How did you guys reach

an agreement about the violence topic? Tell me about the process? How did

you keep your concentration through all these previous sessions?...”

The responses of each student proved that they deeply embraced the process

and all have a personal connection to the topic. Even one student, who is

usually very quiet, impressed all of us by strongly advocating for his ideas

and the importance of Violence Free Week. There were many truly confident

and proud smiles in the room! He approved of the proposal, thanked us and

promised to get back to the class with his feedback on the proposal. Our last

class ended with dancing, happy students!

Bulldog Pride!

“Kids always complain about the school system, it is great to hear a solution for once!”

-Mr. Muhammad

MEETING THE PRINCIPAL PRESENTATION qUESTIONS AND ANSWERS DANCING PORTRAIT SHOTS INTERVIEWS

38

39Groves High School

Go Future Minded Dreamers!We start the day as visitors. Every Tuesday and Thursday we enter Robert W.

Groves High School, we sign our names, we get a visitor tag, and we head for

room 600 to spend 55 minutes with 11 students in Ms. Dawson’s 9th-12th grade

class. Then we leave … as something more than just visitors.

There is a reason for being at Groves High; a reason that we hope is meaningful,

fun, and larger than ourselves. We are there to help unleash the power of the

students. Together, we want to learn about the nature and value of human

connection, crossing boundaries, the process of sharing perspectives and

building off of each other’s ideas. Is this ordinary? Have students been given the

power to address challenges through their own unique perspective?

Nutrition Class, T, Th 8:25-9:20 am

Ms. Dawson

# students: 11

Facilitators: Eric Green, Marina Petrova

What We Are Hoping to Achieve

• Learn the process

• Learn to better work in groups

• Become better problem solvers

• Understand our needs

• Imagine possibilities

• Learn to use the skills on our own

• Learn how to engage people in a conversation

• Dive beyond the obvious

• Have fun

• Working in teams

Introducing an element of play keeps the students engaged and focused.

In previous food drives the students would only bring food, but they would have no contact with the people who the food was intended for.

The students find the homeless people scary and stinky.

Ripple Effect Find True North Define Your Problem Ball Game knowledge Fest

SUB

STIT

UT

ION

OF

TH

EP

LAN

NE

D A

CT

IVIT

Y,U

NE

XP

EC

TE

D R

ESU

LTS

WH

AT

WE

LE

AR

NE

DR

ESU

LTS

WH

AT

WE

AR

E G

OIN

G

TO

DO

NE

XT

Class 1 1-24-13

The students have never done anything to make them think about the effects their actions have on the community or the world.

Knowledge Fest

Define Your Problem

Define Your Problem

The students really liked the pep talk video.

When everybody sits around the table, rather than in the auditorium, it is much easier to have discussions.

The students find it easy to express their ideas visually. We learn more about them from their drawings.

By asking a follow up question on Adam’s wish to have a talent show at school we found out that the students liked drama.

They enjoyed doing skits.

Mind mapping was very useful to break the very general initial ideas into more specific ones.

3 mind maps and more specific ideas.

Adam talks about giving courage to members of the women’s shelter.

Because some of the students were missing the previous class, we had to repeat the mindmapping exercise and the students were not very engaged.

Changing the work place enlivens the class energy.

Working in a big group is not productive.

The students get more excited when the ideas look more real.

We have two winning ideas - bringing canned food to the homeless and having a dress down day to raise money for school supplies.

Krissy refers to the class list of rules - “No idea is stupid.”

We would like to have the students grow the ideas and choose one. To keep them engaged we had to come up with something fun and fast.

We would like to make the idea more personal.

We came up with the game to provoke brainstorming.

It was a part of Jam session, but was fast and kept the students engaged.

Students created individual and group goals.

They came up with a team name - Future Minded Dreamers and class rules.

The students unanimously chose to go for the bringing food to the homeless idea.

The ball game produces good ideas about how to make bringing food to the homeless more different and interesting.

Students are motivated by competition.

Giving them the countdown and asking them to be more specific in their answers produces better results.

The students wrote their answers, but we did not have time to read the answers. We will discuss the answers next class.

We try to contact Second Harvest and look for potential places that the students can go to.


Student groups came up with three ideas for positive actions:

- Homework cafe

- Help build and repaint houses

- Fundraising for college fees

We would like to explain what the project is and what the process are about.

We want to keep the students inspired.

We will start thinking about a common goal.

The most common goals:

work as a team, do something for the community, open up , have fun

Some students did not do their homework.

We will try to come up with a class wide idea.

The students asked to see the Girl Effect video again.

The students were engaged in the activity more than usual.

Students developed a lot of good questions about what they wanted to know about the homeless people.

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knowledge Fest II Interviewing 101 Mr. Heery’s Visit

Adam told the class about a place we could use to feed the homeless.

Tiana told the class about a place close by where they seemed to serve food to homeless people.

The students think they might need to talk to the principal or his assistant for help.

We contact Mr. Marvin Heery, a homelessness activist and ask him to visit the class.

The video on homeless children was very emotional.

We are getting more personal responses from the students.

Krissy suggested we played the Ball Game or Ripple Effect with Mr. Heery.

Ms. Dawson surprises us with her personal story.

Mr. Heery reconnects with school faculty from past years.

The students did not ask Mr. Heery very many questions.

They were unusually quiet .

Discussion

Ms. Dawson will check a couple of shelters, Mr. Heery will think about potential places the students could visit.

None of the opportunities we were hoping to discuss seemed to work, so we spent the class going over the idea and potential new places.

Setting an Agenda

Instead of bringing food, the students decide to give clothes and care packages to the homeless. The students decided to make cards as well.


The balloon video showed the class that a simple and tangible idea can have a large impact.

The students are interested in developing a personal connection with the homeless.

Mr. Marvin Heery is coming to next class.

Community issues can be more personal than we think.

Students learn from Mr. Heery that homeless people in Savannah are not really hungry. They are in need more of support.

The class was smaller which allowed for more participation from students who were usually quiet.

If we make a field trip, it has to be during class hours.

We continue to search for opportunities to meet with the homeless.

Cards Divide and Conquer

The students are very creative and enjoyed making cards.

Each student created a card for a homeless person.

We continue to search for opportunities to meet with the homeless.

The students came up with specific steps for three main tasks:

- Introducing the team when they meet the homeless

- Facilitate a conversation

- Have games to play

INTRODUCTIONS RIPPLE EFFECT

The ripple effect RIPPLE EFFECT

Decide what kind of impact you want your group to have - from improving the lives of individuals in your community to changing the country or the world.


Fig. 1 The class was split into teams of three. each team had to come up with a positive action and think about the effect it would have on their friends and family and the community.

The first day we were inspired to jump right in and ask the students what positive

effect could they have on their community. After meeting, introducing ourselves,

sharing, and overview, we presented the Ripple Effect activity. After the students

gained an understanding of the activity, they lead the process. It was quickly learned

that this was something new and their own ideas were valued.

We ended with a modification to the Ripple Effect. The class was brought together

to discuss all three positive actions and their impact on the world.

It is our hope that the students realize that there is something greater than ourselves

and that everyone has something to give.

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Students’ ripple effect diagrams and list of effects.

FIND TRUE NORTH

As a group come to an agreement on the goals you want to achieve and when you want to achieve them.

RECAP OVERVIEW OF CAT PEP TALk RULES OF THE GAME FIND TRUE NORTH HOMEWORk

Set the Stage


we wanted to give the students more context and understanding for the activities that we were going to do with them, so we created a diagram for the process.

In order to set the stage for the coming weeks, we saw value in emphasizing to the

students that this was their time, their space and that we would do our best to help

them. The day began with the students coalescing around a team name - Future

Minded Dreamers.

Individual goals were made along with a list of student defined class rules. Building

on team dynamics we shared the value in consultation and the power of coming

together as groups.

Pep Talk by Kid President

We wanted to set the tone on a high note, so we looked to kid President for a fun,

motivational speech. They loved it so much that we decided to show something

inspiring every class.

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STUDENT GOALS


• I would like to be more open with things

• Be helpful with group work

• Learn more things that will help our community and neighborhood

• How to have fun in groups

• Learn not to be shy or hold back my thoughts

• Work well with people I nor-mally don’t talk to

• Better my public speaking skills

• Work with students who are different and have different ideas, which will make our ideas stronger

• Learn about some things I can do to better myself and the community I live in

• I would also like to learn about different skills I can use when working in groups

• Expand activities

• I would like to solve problems, learn how to work better as a team and learn new things

• Give us tips on how to study in a fun way

• Make more fun things to do for our school

• I hope we work together as one

• Do a lot of hands on activities

• Get more comfortable around each other

• Get along

• HAVE FUN!

• Be patient with your group

• Talk things out more

• Solve problems

• Make new friends

• Be nice to everyone in class

• Never do mean things

Students shared more about themselves by

drawing rather then talking. Tysheah drew a

picture of her as a nurse, Krissy said she loved

flowers and wanted to create a school garden.

The students enjoyed the Pep Talk video.

We decided to show something inspirational

every class.

RULES OF THE GAME

No idea is stupid

Be open minded

Be respectful

Don’t talk over each other

Don’t be shy, participate

TEAM NAME

Rough Ryders

Caillou

No Names

Future Minded Leaders

HOMEWORk DEFINE YOUR PROBLEM MIND MAPPING


First HomeworkWe really enjoyed the students’ drawings, so we decided to ask them to draw their

initial ideas for a positive action within the community.

Our process has been different than the other high school groups in that we have

addressed positive actions rather than problems. Our goal is that we are turning

problems into opportunities.

HOMEWORk ASSIGNMENT

Illustrate something (write, diagram, draw) that would collectively improve our lives. For example making higher education more attainable or growing a school garden. Bring the paper to the next class ready to discuss.

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Chelsey

Adam


Kristina

Tyshea

HOMEWORk DEFINE YOUR PROBLEM MIND MAPPING

Generating Ideas


DEFINE YOUR PROBLEM

Define the problem your group wants to tackle and establish key questions to answer along the way.

We kicked the class off with a video about connection; an essential skill in group

consultation. On that note we paired students up to have them discuss their

personal positive actions from last class. The small teams were asked to come to a

shared vision of a positive action, which was presented in the form of a collective

skit to the class.

Skits created a sense of play, fun and laughter.

To further develop ideas we incorporated mind mapping as a tool to find deeper

insight.

Student’s individual idea for a positive action Group skit Collective mind map with class

Adam

Debria

Get more comfortable around each

other

Make morefun things to do

at our school

Being a helping

hand

being a helping

hand

homelessshelters

hospital

clothesgroceries

women’s shelter

role model

courage

visit

nursing home

company

entertain

groceries

communityservice hours

graduation

Facebook: The Things That Connect Us

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sports inthe community

center

peers

good exercise

location

liberty citypooler recreation

keep youth outof trouble

something to do

sports

basketball

softball

football

swimming lessons

dodgeball

we can

get equipment

clean up

advertise

give themsnacks

invite homeless

guys

parentscan exercise

CommunityCenter

Sports Exercise

Grow a Community

Garden

Sports in the Community

Center


Student’s individual idea for a positive action Group skit Collective mind map with class

Chelsey

Tony

Krissy

Shavonna

Daiwon

Fundraise for College

Clean Parks

Clean parks and raise money

clean park and

earn money for

college

water fountains

campaign

instead of paying city

employees pay students

trash cans

advertise

organize an event

bring sponsors

make signs

RECAP MIND MAPS REVIEW DEFINE YOUR PROBLEM II

Choosing an Idea


In the search of a common class goal the students participated in the Define Your Problem activity. Team FMD worked on writing out initial ideas and then narrowing them down. At the end of the day there were three common goals. Consultation was good and we hope to define one specific class goal next class.

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we Have a TieWe will continue next class further discussing the ideas and choosing one.

Changing the working space enlivened the

energy of the class.

We learn that if the students raise money, it

has to be spent on the school.

If the students are asked to bring a dollar or

something for charity, they find it easier to

give a dollar.

We are thinking of how we can make the

experience more personal than just bringing

cans to the school.

Team FMD (Future Minded Leaders) unanimously picked Idea #1 Providing food for the homeless people.

How Do we Connect?

CANS vs. BAkLAVA STORIES FROM THE STREET VIDEO - CASS DISCUSSION CHOOSE AN IDEA YOU MAkE ME SMILE VIDEO BALL GAME


As an opportunity to personalize relationships Marina (class co-facilitator) baked

home-made baklava and shared pictures of her friends and family from Bulgaria.

While enjoying, the students realized that there was canned food on the table

as well. This proved as an effective exercise to realize what is the emotion of

connection.

Coming into class team FMD had two opportunities waiting to be chosen upon from

the last session; giving canned food for the homeless or having a dress down day as

a fundraiser for school supplies.

Marina’s gift inspired the students to make canned food personalized.

Stories from the Street - Cass

We showed this video to the students to help them with the understanding of what

is homelessness.

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How can we share it with our classmates, friends or family, so that they can join us?

• Sit down and eat with them

• Have a conversation

• Bring shoes

• Donate old clothes

• Play games

• Cook for them

• Bring the girls jewellery and purses


Think Quick

How can we make this ideamore fun

• Give them books

• Make them happy

• Bring hygiene products

• Hand out cards

• Help them cook

• Do arts and crafts

• Bring blankets

• Bring scarves

• Have a family fun day

• Advertise on radio, newspapers, tweet it

• Talk to the teachers and Principal

• Put fliers at groceries stores

• Facebook page

• Car wash to raise money

• Lemonade stands

• Tell students they can get community service hours

• Go door-to-door

• Make an event

We learned that it was very easy to lose the students’ attention and interest. Our

goal for the class was to grow the idea and keep the students excited. The Jam

session activity in CAT requires that the students do skits, but we decided to try

something different.

The students participated in food drives

before, but they would only bring the food

in class. They would never meet the people

the food was intended for.

They noticed the girl from the video had

dreams.

When we asked the students what unique

skills they had, the first girl to answer the

question said she did not have any unique

skills. We could have asked the question

differently, for ex. “How can you help? What

are you good at.

what Can Questions reveal?

RECAP TAkE A SEAT, MAkE A FRIEND VIDEO kNOWLEDGE FEST SkITS


Having a competition between the teams

got the students excited. Although they liked

performing skits, they still did not want to be

on the losing team.

Giving them the countdown kept them

working.

Some of the answers to the questions were

very general such yes “Yes”. “No”, “It should”.

We explained to the students that they should

be more specific.

The students asked us about the Girl Effect

video and we watched it again.

kNOWLEDGE FEST

Find out what your team already knows about the challenges you are interested in solving together - and what you’d like to learn.

The best way to find something out is to ask questions, but what do we ask? A fun

and lighthearted video was shown that encouraged learning by questioning.

knowledge Fest, as an activity, helped us facilitate questions and answers specifically

toward how Team MFD can give a helping hand to the homeless. By asking

questions the team developed a connection to the project.

(Class 6) Take a Seat, Make a Friend

(Class 7) Stories from the Street - Jason(Class 7) You Make Me Smile

(Class 6) Girl Effect, frog design

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we Have a Guest

Class 1 1-24-13 Class 4 2-5-13Class 3 1-31-13 Class 6 2-12-13Class 2 1-29-13 Class 5 2-7-13

MY OWN FOUR WALLS VIDEO ANSWERING THE WHY BALL GAME INTERVIEWING 101

why do you want to meet a homeless person?why do you want to help him or her?

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2

So that I can talk to them and talk about their dreams.1

2 I will like to help them because if I was homeless I will want someone to help me.- Tony

To give them hope and to show them that we care.1

2 They need help because being homeless is a sad situation and they have no food and no place to go.- Daiwon

I will like to meet a homeless person so I could talk to them to really find out how does it feel not to have (a home?) and how do they manage to stay on the street.

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2

- T. Miller

I would like to meet a homeless person because I want to see what the homeless life would be like.

1

2 They need help because being homeless is a sad situation and they have no food and no place to go.- Chelsey

Because we can do fun stuff like: play a board game, tell jokes, talk about ourselves and watch movies.

1

- Shavonna

I would want to meet a homeless person to make them feel happy, loved and appreciated.

1

2 I would want to help a homeless person because if I was homeless, I’d want someone to help me and it would help build character.

- Krissy

Because I want to meet someone that’s different from me. And I want to know what led them to being homeless.

1

2 I want to help him/ her because nobody deserves to live on the streets, and I want to let them know that they can change this.

- Tiana

INTERVIEWING 101

Plan an interview from start to finish, then go into your community and talk with people about issues that matter to them.

Over the weekend we have reached out to community member and homeless

activist Mr. Marvin Heery. We shared Team FMD’s story, their desire to connect with

the homeless community and if he would like to be a part. Mr. Heery’s response was

“When can I come?” Our response was ““You came come next week” and that’s how

community action takes place.

Questions for the class:

Answers

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Q: What happened to his family?

> I want to find out where his family is and > why did they let him become homeless

Q: How did he become homeless?

> I want to know how he became homeless

Q: What did he think of homeless people before he became homeless?

Q: How did becoming homeless affect his character?

Q: How did he get through being homeless?

Q: Who gave him hope?

Q: How did he get out of the shelter; how did he start over again?

Q: What was it like being homeless?

Q: Do you look at homeless people the same way?

Q: What/Who was your motivation to becoming successful?

- Krissy & Daiwon


• Homeless

• Dirty

• Less fortunate

• We should help them

• Mean

• Hope

• No Money

• Hungry

• Sad

• Houseless

• Ashamed

• Haircut

• Bad

• Faith

• Give them change

• No family

• Buy them something to eat

• Lonely

• Help

• Lazy

• Drug Addict

• Praying

• Scared

• Never Loved

when you hear the word ‘homeless’ or see a homeless person, what is the first thing that comes to your mind?

Interview Questions for Mr. Heery

We asked the student to think about the following questions while they worked on interview questions for Mr. Heery

- Why are you asking this question?- What do you want to find out?

Q: How did you become homeless?

Because we want to find out about his homeless life

Q: How long have you been homeless?

Q: How did you overcome homelessness?

- Chelsey & Shavonna

Q: How did it feel to be homeless?

Q: What did it take to get back on your feet?

Q: Is your business a success right now?

> To see how homeless people feel.

> Does it make him feel that no one love him?

> To see if his strategy would help other homeless. > Because they are more homeless in the world that

can get off their feet. > Because he spent his money on it that what made him homeless. To see if he is getting big guwop.

- Tony & Debria

The video gave the students a new

perspective on homelessness. One of

the things the students shared was that

the kids spoke like grown-ups

The ball game helped them understand

that we all had stereotypes

Krissy suggested that we did the Ball

Game or Ripple Effect with Mr. Heery.

understanding Stereotypes

MR. MARVIN HEERY VISITS THE CLASS

The Power ofPersonal Stories


“What I want to encourage you is that this should not be the end of your community involvement. If you feel called and motivated to do more in your community once you get out, I encourage you to do that. Right now you are getting the foundation of being very successful as a neighborhood activist or a neighborhood leader.”

-Marvin Heery

We met Mr. Marvin Heery on a Saturday afternoon. We talked to him about the

project, the students, how they came up with the idea of helping the homeless

people. We showed Mr. Heery the CAT, and discovered that he was already familiar

with the use of toolkits to facilitate collaboration, collective decision making and

problem solving.

Mr. Heery is a social entrepreneur. Having experienced homelessness himself

about two years ago, now he is an active homelessness advocate. He started the

“Homelessness in Savannah” non-profit organization, administers a couple of blogs

about homelessness and participates on a number of social projects. Mr. Marvin Heery

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“I absolutely love what I do and the best part is watching my students grow and mature throughout the years that I have them. Teaching for me is more than just teaching content but about making connections and building relationships. It is my sincere desire that my students do not leave the same once they have had an encounter with me.”

Mr. Heery shared his personal story about how his business depleted his resources

and he lost his home. He lived in a shelter, then moved to an affordable housing

development. He worked hard to get out of his situation and stayed dedicated to help

the homeless.

The students were surprised to hear that there were many reasons for people

experiencing homelessness, among which domestic abuse, unstable family, medical

or health crisis, loss of a job, foreclosure because of the economy, poor life choices

and poor financial management choices. Students were very quiet...

Then something happened that none of us will ever forget. After sitting silently in the

back, Ms. Dawson cleared her throat, and said she had something to say.

“I don’t think I ever told any of my students that have been here at Groves this, but

I’ve been homeless.”

The room went silent.

We’d been talking all that time about connections, only to discover one right in class.

“You don’t know where people come from, you don’t know what they’ve been through… The world is real out there. The world is real raw. It doesn’t care if you have a child, it doesn’t care that you are smart… For me, this is something very dear, this is something very important, because I’ve been there.”

Ms. Natosha Dawson has been teaching high school for five years and has spent three years at Groves High School. She is a Family and Consumer Science Teacher and currently teaches in the Nutrition and Food Science and Interior Design pathways.

Ms. Natosha Dawson

DISCUSSION

Last class was an empowering and emotional day for all. The students were

thankful of the stories told by Ms. Dawson and Mr. Heery and this has made them

realize how personal connection in community can be.

Discussion


“We could interact with them and talk to them. I want to talk to some homeless people really because I want to know their story... Because not every homeless person is a drug addict or alcoholic, there are other things.”-Tiana

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More Ideas More Questions

The video gave the students a new per-

spective on homelessness. One of the

things the students shared was that the

kids spoke like grown-ups

The ball game helped them understand

that we all had stereotypes

Krissy suggested that we did the Ball

Game or Ripple Effect with Mr. Heery.

• Bring clothes and hygiene products to make care packages

• Create cards, give words of encouragement

• Play games - Uno, Bingo, Shoots and Ladders, Heads Up 7 Up

• Create name tags so that we know their name and they know us

• Have a speed meeting?

• Tell them why we are coming to meet them

• Show them our process, show them every-thing we’ve done to get to the idea.

• How long can we be there for?

• What do you need?

• What ages?

• Do you have meals?

• Can we bring food?

• What day?

• How do they get money?

• Can we take pictures?

MAkING CARDS

words ofencouragement


“My dream might be going to college, their dream might be just getting a house”.-Tysheah (?)

Debria Adam

The team at Savannah High developed a connection to the homeless community

in Savannah. This connection inspired them to create deeper, more personal

connections outside of the classroom.

Through the involvement of Marvin Heery, and the inspiration of Ms. Dawson, the

students plan on taking tangible steps in the near future to step outside of the

comfort of their classroom and continue to discover new aspects of homelessness.

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64

65Savannah High School

Facilitators: Robynn Butler, Carol Lora, Katie Mansell

Ms. Reese

Marketing Class, Fri 8:15-9:15 am

students # 18

The Savannah HighBlue JacketsEach Friday morning from February 1st through March 1st 2013,

Team High arrived at Mrs. Reese’s class to facilitate the Frog Collective Action

Tool kit. At first, Team High was a little apprehensive about meeting the

students and trying to explain to them what we were doing in their classroom.

To Team High’s surprise the students were extremely excited to be there and to

see what Team High had to offer. In fact, they were extremely excited to get

started. All of the classes were made up of about eighteen to twenty students

per class. The best part of all was that the students who did decide to show up

all were all volunteers, nobody was forced to be. Little did they know what they

would be getting themselves into.

It was easy and beneficial to see how answers overlapped since the students wrote ideas down individually at first. There were many strong ideas that were repeated throughout thegroup

Review &Celebration

Who Inspires Us Find Issues,

Uncover Needs Storyboarding 101& Find True North

knowledge Fest Jam Session

SUB

STIT

UT

ION

OF

TH

E,P

LAN

NE

D A

CT

IVIT

YU

NE

XP

EC

TE

D R

ESU

LTS

WH

AT

WE

LE

AR

NE

DR

ESU

LTS

WH

AT

WE

AR

E G

OIN

GT

O D

O N

EX

T

Class 1 2-01-13

Who or what inspires us turned into ‘who” or what inspires us

Combination

Storyboarding 101

Students relate with one another on a number of similartopics

The students are very supportive of one another ideas The students agree on thetopics that inspire them

How the students understand their role in thelarger community

Students were excited to talkabout their future endeavors

They were able to realize potential dangers around them that might inhibit gooddecision-making

Three main goals were to have better food in the cafeteria stop the gun violence and learn how tokeep their streets clean

We focused the entire class on the two main issues orproblems

The students worked reallywell in large groups

This activity was more about creating a dialogue thanabout doing

They have really good ideas but you just have to get them to think more about.them

We got a lot of brainstorming done, and got the studentstalking, this went really well

It created a nice dynamic where the students really got to know one another

We decided that we would hone in on one issue to get them really focused on that issue this issue ended upbeing about the cafeteria

The students wrote the ideas and solutions they thought of directly before the sortingsection of the activity

Career, money, crime,are allobstacles to success

Having the money to pay for college or to support a family is difficult for these students to understand

Joining the military is a viableoption for some

The students identified which of their solutions were the most attainable at that moment and chose to pursue an actionable one they could complete in our time withthem: the petition

We used pictures of food that was in their school-provided lunch and food they liked to print out a cleaned-up version of the petition they wrote. Next class we will bring it to them and review the quarter while enjoying some good,.local food


The next activity will dig deeper into the personal lives of each student in order to grasp where each student see him or herself now and in.the future

Identifying individual goals and two obstacles to success

Common themes related to inspiration included: God, Love, Family, Michelle and Barack Obama

As a group have the students identify the goal they want to work on and have them storyboard it.

The students are faced with a number of different obstacles and it is hard for them to justfocus on one thing

Students are interested in empower themselves and the community but they are not sure how or even if theycan do it

Understand how they can learn to be apart of the largercommunity

Have them visualize a path to their own success and howthey can help others

For this class we ended it as we opened up the sessionswith a yes and activity

My name and what I liked and learned about theentire process

We as group learned that giving back is a really rewarding feeling and just bringing them food was such a nice gesture for the good moments that we had withthem

The last class ended up finishing on a really high note

It was more about just finishing up and talking andseeing the final product

Celebrate!

Find True North

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INTRODUCTIONS “YES, AND...” WHO INSPIRES US

Team Building


This team building exercise was designed to help us understand which images

or icons bind this community of students and young athletes. We also wanted

to understand how their inspirations aspire them to want to achieve great

things for themselves and their families.

We spilt the class into four team of 5. Each team had to brainstorm and write

down all of the people or things that inspire them. Afterwards they presented

their posters to the class.

WHAT INSPIRES US

Identify people in your community and beyond that inspire your group and could help you solve your group’s challenges.

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Find issues, uncover needs

Better understand the problems people face in your community and consider what your group can do collectively to help.

RECAP OVERVIEW Find issues, uncover, needs


We wanted to find insights by framing questions to actualized their inspirations.

We also wanted them to look for the obstacles that might hinder them along

their career paths or journeys in life.

If the students were to realize that they had similarities and differences in this

process, we thought that that might be a point of connectivity.

In Ten Years...

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Looking into the future

• I would like to be a professor

• I would like a good job

• I hope to join the military

• I hope to graduate from high school

• I would like a family and kids

• Hopefully I will get married some day

• I need money to pay for tui-tion

• When I graduate from high school, I will join the military and then my tuition will be paid for.

• I would like to be a fashion designer when I grow up

• I see myself be a counselor

• I would like to have a job one day

• Money is an obstacle, how will I pay for college

• Staying out of trouble is difficult

• There is not much to do during the summer and after school

• I want to be a professor, but I’m not sure if I am smart enough

• I am lazy and not disciplined

• I have a child and I am not sure how I am going to be able to support it in the future.

• I need to get better grades and study more

• There are a lot of drugs in the high school and it is hard to stay clean

• My parents are separated and my mom works full time so it is hard to get ahead.

The students’s comments on who they

want to be when the grow and how they

are going to get there, provided insight

into the where they come from and their

individual personality traits.

The students all knew that they are grow-

ing up and this seemed scary to them,

however, they all seem to have a goals

and seemed determined to achieve

them.

Top Obstacles

• Money

• Crime

• Drugs

• Laziness

• Personal Support

Top Goals

• Professor

• Family

• Military

• DJ

Class 1 2 -01-13 Class 4 2-20-13Class 3 2-13-13 Class 6 3 -01-13Class 5 2-22-13Class 2 2-08-13

Getting FocusedAfter building teams, focusing on where the students want to go, and the

obstacles that the students might face, we really wanted them to get focused

on what the problems that they face really are and where these problems exist

out in the real world. At this point the group really seemed ready to make some

decisions.

FIND TRUE NORTHSTORYBOARDING 101 As a group, come to agreement on the goals you want to achieve- and when you want to achieve them.

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The students each came to an agreement to

work on individual goals before working on larger

community goals. They created a storyboard of

their goals and then shared their goals with the

class.

Afterwards they categorized their storyboards

and prioritized which goals seemed to the most

important to work on.

Nathan (above) wanted to work on cleaning up the

neighborhood because there is a lot of pollution on

the streets and around the neighborhood.

we need To Talk


kNOWLEDGE FEST

Find out what your team already knows about challenges you’re interested in solving together- and what you’d liketo learn

Class 3 2-15-13

After reviewing the progress from the last session, the students used a

modification of Build Activity 2: knowledge Fest to express what they already

knew and how they felt about their two chosen topics. The class was split into

two groups, half discussing violence in their school and community and half

looking at their discontent with the school-provided lunches. After writing as

much as they could in about ten minutes, each group shared with the rest of

the class and gave the others an opportunity to share their ideas for solutions.

Half the students brainstormed questions and thoughts they had about the

issue of their discontent with the cafeteria food in their school . The second

group of students wrote their assumptions, impressions, and questions

surrounding violence in their community. The students started with who the

issue affects, how it impacts individuals and the community, and possible

solutions

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What are the students saying about cafeteria food ?

• There is nothing I can do

• Why does this happen

• Families are effected

• Do the right thing

• Stand up for a person

• Restrict gun usage

• Suicide is a result

• This is a stereotype

Get the Conversation Going

What are the students saying about violence?

• Video games promote it

• Sisters and brothers are

affected

• It could get worse

• So many rumors

• People are not educated

• It is a power struggle

• No more spoiled milk

• It sucks

• It is nasty

• No more Papa Johns

• Allow off campus food

• More people should care

• Have other options in school

• Michelle Obama school lunch

program is not good

• Snacks can be healthy

• We could grow our own food

The students did not feel like they could

do anything about their personal and

community problems, however, quickly

started brainstorming solutions.

Some students in the class were more

comfortable speaking in front of the camera

when another classmate was behind it, but

mostly the students that were taking the

pictures and video became more involved,

engaged, and excited

While the two groups were discussing their topics, some students

interviewed others in their class. Putting the camera in their hands gave

students the opportunity to ask questions that mattered to them and

express their ideas in a comfortable atmosphere

Class 1 2-01-13 Class 4 2-20-13Class 3 2-15-13 Class 6 03-01-13Class 5 2-22-13Class 2 2-08-13 Class 3 2-15-13

JAM SESSION

Create as many ideas as possi-ble with your group, exploring a range of different solutions and building on each other’s ideas in a supportive manner.

Actionable IdeasThe students took time to write down as many ideas and solutions to the

issue they had with the school cafeteria food. After they had as many ideas as

they could think of, they sorted them on a spectrum of which they thought

were the easiest to the most impossible. They then chose a doable solution-

creating a petition- which they wrote themselves after working together to

affinitize the most popular and important points agreed upon by the group

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The students were able to come up with

very creative ideas, and they were more

invested in following through with a

solution of their own design

Though they were invested in their idea,

it was still daunting to see themselves

making change, submitting ideas to

authority figures, etc

The students sought to make a petition

that was positive, encouraging of change,

nonconfrontational, and that would be supported

by their peers. They also sought to create

awareness of their issue and promote positive

action by encouraging their fellow students to post

pictures of good food on social media sites and

share it with the school

I Pledge...

Class 1 2-01-13 Class 4 2-20-13Class 3 2-15-13 Class 6 03-01-13Class 5 2-22-13Class 2 2-08-13 Class 3 2-15-13

REVIEW

Standing in a circle, the students weregiven the opportunity to share their ex-perience, what they found fun or helpful, or what could be improved aboutthe CAT facilitation

Actionable IdeasThe students took time to write down as many ideas and solutions to the

issue they had with the school cafeteria food. After they had as many ideas as

they could think of, they sorted them on a spectrum of which they thought

were the easiest to the most impossible. They then chose a doable solution-

creating a petition- which they wrote themselves after working together to

affinitize the most popular and important points agreed upon by the group

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For our last class we really wanted to do something special for our

students so we went to a local organic food store and bought them a

bunch of good organic collared greens, carrots, spinach and oh there

may have been a brownie or two. We also got the students in a circle

and had them say a few words about their experience with us and the

CAT.

All you need is a group and the CAT

The students get an opportunity to tell us how to make this experience better for future users

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SYNTHESIS4.The former high school sections were individual and highly detailed analysis’ of

each group’s work. The following synthesis will compare these three processes, on

a class-by-class basis, from an objective perspective. According to our analysis,

all the three high schools shared the same six objectives, enacted in the following

order : discovering the context and building trust, defining a problem, exploring

the problem, generating ideas, selecting final concept, prototyping, and executing

plans. The goal of the synthesis is to compare the different CAT activities that had

been chosen for each objective and the period of time each school spent in each

step. Groves and Beach high school met their students twice a week, but Savannah

High had just one weekly session, except week 5 when they met twice It should be

mentioned that high school meetings started in the third week of SCAD classes. So,

week one of synthesis diagram is week three of SCAD classes. Because each high

school had unique and specific experiences, we documented the results of each

school separately in these categories:

• The activities that we modified and time challenges we faced.

• The invented activities

• The activities that created excitement in students or they struggled with.

• The skills that students, teachers, and facilitators developed or acquired.

• Our challenges and related suggestions for successful implementation of

CAT activities in school.

Process

Divide and Conquer

W7

Class 1

Settingan Agenda

Circle Activity *

Story-boarding

JamSession

Find True North

JamSession

Discover context Build trust

Problem Definition

Final Concept

Prototyping Execution

High school meetings started in the third week of SCAD classes.

Exploring the Problem

Idea Generation

SkillShare

RippleEffect

Find True North

Define Your Problem

W7knowledge

Festknowledge

Fest

Ball Game

Interview101

Mr. Heery’sVisit

Discussion

Postcards Divide and Conquer

RippleEffect

Find True North *

Interview101

knowledgeFest

Divide and Conquer

RippleEffect

Define Your Problem

Lights, Camera, Action!*

OverviewStory-boarding*

Class 2 Class 1 Class 2 Class 1 Class 2 Class 1 Class 2 Class 1 Class 2 Class 1 Class 2 Class 1 Class 2

TUE, JAN 22 TUE, MAR 12

Week 2 Week 6 Week 7Week 1 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5

Define YourProblem

Define YourProblem

* New activities

Who Inspires Us

Find Issues, Uncover

Needs

Story. 101

Story- boarding

101

Story- boarding

101

knowledgeFest

knowledgeFest

JamSession

JamSession

Petition

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Our overall approach to facilitating the CAT was based on action research wherein

each in-class experience informed our activity plan for the following session.

We began by learning about each other and building the trust necessary to

successfully create a memorable experience for the students. As time progressed,

we learned to direct the group towards community-based goals and created new

activities to make quick, informed group decisions where every voice was heard.

We saw a turning point when the students really began to see their own potential

as a group, during the idea generation activity “Jam Session”. Further along, the

students struggled during the planning process of their ideas and needed heavier

and more targeted facilitation. Ultimately, due to the nature of the group’s work,

we diverted from the CAT and simply offered support where it was needed.

Timing, both in the number of sessions we had with the students and the time

per session (a short 45 minutes), was a major factor in our planning process.

The majority of the CAT activities are designed for sessions over an hour long,

necessitating that we extract the most impactful and salient parts of the activities.

We adapted the following activities:

Beach High School

adaptation and Time Frame

New activitiesSince some voices in the class were louder than others, we borrowed a technique

from the Find True North activity to make sure each member’s voice was heard.

Whenever a group decision had to be made, we had the students stand in a

circle and one by one, share their opinion and how they arrived at that opinion.

These tended to produce lively and respectful discussions that facilitated group

momentum. We designed two new activities:

1 .After Find True North we did not have enough time to run a complete CAT

activity but needed to get a deeper understanding about their chosen topics.

We designed What Do You Want to Know that asked students, as a group, to

brainstorm all the possible questions necessary to understand the topic.

2. Because we needed a proposal for our meeting with the Principal, we asked

them to write down all their reasons for choosing Violence at School as a topic

Enthusiasm, participation, and ChallengesIt was typically hard to gauge how enthusiastic the students would be from

session to session. Since our class met relatively early at 9:15 am, we learned it

was helpful to incorporate a physical, “ice breaking” type of activity at the start

of class. Unfortunately, due to the time constraints, we tended to cut out this

activity in favor of incorporating more CAT-based time. The students were most

enthusiastic during the Skill Share, Define Your Problem, Jam Session, and

Storyboarding activities.

On the other hand, students struggled in Setting an Agenda and Divide and

Conquer activities, perhaps because time management is a new experience for

them.

built skills and CharacteristicsStudents: critical thinking, collaboration with classmates, listening,

communication both written and oral, presenting and advocating for their ideas.

Teacher: Saw how methods that are already taught can be applied to address real

world problems with the students in an engaging way

Designers: Compassion, listening skills, respect for other processes, asking “Why”

is key, collaboration in a very unfamiliar environment, and trust building

limitations and RecommendationFor the CAT to work most effectively in a school setting, the activities should be

designed for a 40-45 minute time period. Our student were frequently absent

or distracted during class so it would be a good idea to provide a recap of the

last sessions activities at the beginning of each new session. Depending on the

number of sessions available, and the demographic involved, it may be helpful

to suggest certain activity paths. For example, had we had another month to

facilitate, we would have chosen our activities much differently. It is imperative to

have the right and appropriate environment. In our case, the students were much

more engaged when we removed the distractions of computers and rearranged

the seating. It is also very helpful to physically arrange the desks class in a way that

clusters the group members together.

and Violence Free Week as a solution on individual post-its notes. Then a volunteer

drafted a proposal from the results.

-Skill share: students shared their likes and dislikes to share their

personality

-Setting an agenda: We merged steps 1 & 3 in a new activity that asked

them to choose a question to work on from a list they had created the

previous session. As it was time-consuming,we ended at step 4.

-Lights, Camera, Action: Each student worked on their “skit” individually.

The “skit” was their portion of the groups presentation to the principal.

Groves High School

New activities

We approached our process with three main goals - create a memorable and

meaningful experience for the students, teach them collaborative and problem

solving skills, and come up with an idea that allows for a rewarding experience at

the end.

We also approached our work differently than the other teams. Instead of asking

about a problem the class can solve, we asked the students to think about a

positive action they would like to do for their community. That created a different

dynamic for the class - the students did not know much about the homeless and

at times it was difficult to discuss ideas and plan. Homeless people were a different

audience for the students to research or interview on their own, so we showed

them videos and invited Mr. Heery, so that they get a better understanding of the

issue.

Enthusiasm, participation, and Challenges

The students liked Ripple Effect, they grasped the idea quickly and were engaged

throughout the entire activity. They referred to the activity a couple of times later

- they suggested that they did Ripple Effect with Mr. Heery and the homeless

people.

Students liked doing skits, although they did not come up with very deep insights

by doing the skits.

We had a good turnaround of questions during knowledge Fest. Students were

not familiar with the issue of homelessness and we also introduced an element of

competition - the team with the least amount of questions was going to do a skit

for the class, which motivated the groups.

Long discussions were challenging. We usually had discussions with the entire

class of 8 or 10 people and it was difficult to keep everybody engaged.

built skills and Characteristics

Students: asking questions, coming up with ideas, being respectful and tolerant,

working as a team

Facilitators: facilitation, presentation skills

adoption and Time Frame

We came up with two new activities:

ball Game - students pass the ball to each other. Whoever has the ball has to

come up with the next idea or question depending on what the primary goal is.

Students liked it because it was quick and fun. Every time we played it they came

up with good ideas.

mind mapping - After our first round of ideas for a positive action, we felt

that they were a little too general. Since we wanted to steer the class towards

something that is achievable, we wanted to expand on the ideas.

limitations and RecommendationWe discovered that there could be a specific variation of CAT aimed for students

with more hands-on activities and more elements of play to keep them engaged

and excited.

We added Mind Mapping to Define Your Problem, and element of competition to

knowledge Fest, Ball Game to Jam Session.

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Savannah High School

New activities

At Savannah High School, our goal was to use frog Design’s Community Action

Toolkit (CAT) activities to equip the students with skills they can use to clarify their

goals, build a team to reach their goals, imagine and seek solutions, and make their

ideas happen. To begin, the students shared Who Inspires Us, and then progressed

to considering issues beyond themselves and affects they could produce in their

own community. Throughout the weeks of working with the group of students

at Savannah High School, we watched the students communicating as a group,

sharing with and encouraging each other, and pursuing their goals to affect

change. Once the students agreed upon an issue to pursue, they quickly reached

an actionable, tangible solution which lent an encouraging wrap up to the end of

the sessions.

Enthusiasm, participation, and ChallengesThe students at Savannah High were enthusiastic and willing to participate in

almost every activity we presented to them. The class was made up of volunteers

from two separate business classes that were meeting at that time, and this

provided us with a unique student dynamic. Along with their willingness to

participate, having sessions on Friday definitely added to the atmosphere. On only

one occasion did the students not participate; we asked them over the week after

session 2, to take photographs of anything they would like to change in their own

lives or in their community, a variation of the We Saw, We Heard CAT activity.

Though they had one week to complete the assignment and all said they had

readily accessible cameras or smartphones, none of the students completed the

activity outside of class. We learned through this experience that the subject we

tasked them with, taking a picture of anything in their life or community they’d

like to change, was far too broad and did not give enough direction and safety for

them to feel excited and confident about completing it.

During the course of the quarter, we met with the students for six, fifty-five

minute sessions. In general, each session occurred during the students’ second

period on Fridays (week 5 we had a Wednesday session and a Friday session).

In our facilitation, we made strategic decisions on which sections of the CAT

activities would be most successful in class periods that were shorter than the

activities were designed for with a varying number each week of between fifteen

and twenty students and three facilitators.

-Who Inspires Us: Rather than focusing on individuals and contacts, in our first

session we asked the students to share what inspires them and pointed out

overlapping answers among the four groups.

-Find Issues, Uncover Needs: In conjunction with the “In 10 Years” activity we

created, we used this one to have students act out their goals and obstacles to

their aspirations.

built skills and Characteristics

Students: critical thinking, collaboration with classmates, listening,

communication both written and oral, presenting and advocating for their ideas,

disseminating their solutions among their peers

Teachers: Experienced the excitement their students exhibited about being an

integral part of their own education

Designers: Facilitation skills, respect for other processes, planning and processing

as a group, and trust building between students and group

adaptation and Time Frame

In the first two sessions, our goal was to create an atmosphere of open

communication and begin a connection between the students and us as

facilitators. Before participating in the Who Inspires Us activity, we gathered

in a circle and played “Yes, and... (Circle Activity 1)” to introduce everyone in

the group. One at a time around the circle, the students said their name and

something they like to do. We learned a little about what the students like to do

for fun and what interested them. For class 2, we created an activity called “In 10

Years”. In the second session, we asked the students to write or illustrate where

they want to be in ten years. They also identified two obstacles in their way or that

they would be required to overcome to reach their goal.

In our final session with the students, we sought to reinforce their enthusiasm

limitations and RecommendationWe found the CAT to be effective in a high school classroom setting if modified to

overcome certain limitations and used by willing, invested participants. We could

not run any of the activities exactly as they were written in the CAT. First, the

time constraint greatly constricted the opportunity for discussion and reflection.

Second, the CAT is designed to benefit a community group that already have at

least an initial goal or purpose in mind. We, however, had to adapt the tools to

prompt the students to first develop a goal they wanted, then Clarify, Build, Seek,

Imagine, and Make.

about their successes during the quarter and to encourage any desire they might

have to continue being leaders and making change. In “Review (Circle -Skill

share: students shared their likes and dislikes to share their personality.

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OPPORTUNITIES

• Participatory education: The CAT activities have

built and enhanced different valuable skills in

students such as critical thinking, collaboration

with classmates, listening, presenting and

advocating for their ideas in students. These

activities will enable schools to create a co-design

environment with active role from students.

According to our observations, students are

more excited and concentrated in participatory

environments because they feel they have a voice!

• Collaboration with authorized decision makers,

e.g., Homeless Authority, etc.

• Collaboration with successful organizations active

in youth development in communities to address

students’ goals in this documentations such as

Lowering Violence or improving school lunches

through gardening

• Participation in different summits, camps, and

events like Youth Summit

• Interfaith: Students have the opportunity to

understand other religions and ethnicities, respect

the differences, find similarities, and learn how to

work together.

• Facilitate their communities: Students become

familiar with CAT and can play a facilitator role to

bring their families together in communities for

solving different range of problems.

• Problem-Solvers, Step-up Leaders, and Resilience

Communities: With these connections students

gradually will become familiar and engaged with

their communities’ problems, and consequently

feel positive about their powerful effects in solving

them. This awareness will enhance their self-

esteem and responsibility about the surrounding

environment and community, and will create

problem-solver ambassadors and resilient

communities of future.

5.After analyzing and synthesizing all gathered data from three high schools, we have

found common desires and patterns. Erudite addressing of these patterns from

schools and other related organizations are ideal opportunities reaching outstanding

prospects in students’ lives:

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GATORBALLACADEMY6.If it were not for Gatorball Academy, a Savannah-based

501 c(3) organization, there would not have been a

connection between SCAD and Groves, Beach, and

Savannah high schools.

Gatorball Academy (GBA) was founded by Larry ‘Gator’

Rivers, a former Harlem Globetrotter (and Beach High

Bulldog), to marry his passion for basketball with his

passions for youth and community engagement.

Currently run by Gator and CFO Debra Hasan, GBA

operates on a number of different levels in the

community. Their core function is a program called

the Globecroppers, which is centered around uniting

basketball skills with organic farming and leadership

skills.

Gator and Debra, and by extension GBA, are

fundamentally people-oriented. They thrive on

connections and relationships, and this passion for

people manifests itself in their organizational goals and

activities.

As part of SCAD’s work with the CAT and high schools,

we partnered with GBA in helping to define a roadmap

for their organization, to enable them to hone in

on their core goals and competencies, prioritize,

and become more effective community organizers,

participants, and leaders. Their goals as an organization

are echoes of the motivations and desires that we

heard in the high schools, and provide us with a

tangible example of a group ready and willing to work

with students on meaningful community action.

The following pages present a high level pass at that

roadmap. We as SCAD students are not experts in

GBA, in what it means to run a potent community

engagement organization in Savannah, or in what the

best practices surrounding this kind of work are. This

work is presented as a set of tools that are applicable

to any organization, but have been tailored for GBA

specifically. There are no solutions here, but instead,

we show one possible path, based on our observations

and conversations with Gator and Debra over the

course of the class.

Who We Aremission & value proposition

value proposition...

Gatorball Academy is dedicated to providing youth engagement and life

skills through sport for young children and teenagers.

Unlike other local youth empowerment organizations, our unique

hybrid of sport and organic gardening provides a rich foundation for the

development of future community-minded leaders.

mission statement...

Gatorball Academy’s mission is to use basketball, gardening and

community engagement as mediums for enabling positive personal

growth; teaching young people to be strong in body, clean in mind and

lofty in ideals. “All you have to do is be balanced...and understand your strength.”

Gator Rivers, GBA Founder

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BRANDIDENTITY

BRAND HERITAGEformer Harlem Globetrotter, Larry “Gator” Rivers, founded Gator Ball Academy in 1988

BRAND OFFERINGbasketball play +instruction;

gardeningteam building games

o field workshops / lessoncivic engagement

mentors / inspiration

BRAND AUDIENCEcommunity based

with an emphasis on youth engagement

BRAND BENEFITShealth, wellness, total fitness,life skills, resilience, courage,

education, philanthropy, compassion, community network

BRAND PERSONALITYempowered, holistic-

mind / body / spirit,change agent, sustainable,

community focusedempathetic

BRAND VALUES / BELIEFSgatorball believes in theinherent potential and

gifts of young people withan openess to all

perspectives, voices, andpeople

BRAND MISSIONgatorball’s mission is to use

basketball, gardening andcommunity engagement as mediums

for positive personal growth; teachingyoung people to be strong in body, clean in mind and lofty

in ideals

BRAND VISIONto foster the growthand development ofchildren and youthbecoming positivemembers of their

communities

What We Do

Gardening Community Basketball

• Enhance participants nutritional knowledge

• Encourage lifelong eating habits

• Improve life skills, group interaction and self

knowledge

• Increase participants awareness & stewardship

• Show an appreciation and respect for nature

• Enhance participants social and behavior skills

• Participant has an increase in science

achievement scores

• Improve group communication skills and

personal skills

• Create a willingness to arise and help

• Teaches participant that there is always

someone in greater need and that we all have

something to give

• Encourage skills in addressing community

challenges for positive change

• Develops a connection with community

leaders, members and resources

• Inspires a desire to become future leaders and

positive members of community

• Creates a support network for participants

• Engagement in team sports builds a

higher self esteem.

• Enhance participants fitness and body

health knowledge

• Participant improves team skills and

personal skills

• Encouraged to take on responsibility and

master challenges

• Enhance participants knowledge of

structure, accountability and responsibilty

• Enhance participants social and

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“Be strong in body,clean in mind and lofty in ideals.”Dr. James Naismith(invented the game of basketball in 1891 )

BASKETBALLGARDENING

GBA

COMMUNITY

16/ Savannah GA/ student

“I think GBA helps me develop as a kid doing things that I enjoy.”

Who We Serve the student

Goals

as a student:Jamar’s life as a student is simple. He goes to school, to his classes, hangs

with his friends as much as he can in lunch and goes on through the rest of

his day. He likes sports, he plays basketball and has always been a person

that likes to help.

Jamar thinks GBA is a good outlet for his passion for basketball, and helping

the community.

previous years in Gba:Jamar has been a part of GBA for two years. He became a member because

his cousin was part of it and was always telling him about all the activities

they did, and the people that they helped in the community. That raised

Jamar’s curiosity, because he always likes to be involved in everything.

His experience so far has been really exciting, he has develop his basketball

skills, and has come to realize how much he likes to help young kids from

the program.

- I want to become a community leader.

- I enjoy helping and wish to become better at it.

- I want to gain more confidence,

while working on my basketball skills.

Trigger: “I want to help while having fun and learning.”

Gbaservice

experience for Jamar

Become an inspirationto others

Hear about GBA

Enroll in the program

Go to a game

Attend seminar

Workshops & seminars

GardeningCivic engagement

Team building games

Team building skills

Confidence

A leader

Become an activemember of community

Basketball play

before program

during program after program

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the coach

Gbaservice

experience for Jamar

34/ Savannah GA/ coach at GBA

“I need focus & motivation in my life and GBA is a window to keep the mo-mentum going.”

Goals

Darryl works as a coach in GBA. His job at GBA brings him great pride. He

enjoys teaching, and this is the perfect environment for it. His training,

discipline and teaching young children about the sport of basketball

through the ballhandling and team building skills. Although he is a busy

person his time in GBA he make it count every minute.

Darryl has been working for GBA, for two years. He is a fit person, and a

sport enthusiast. When not in GBA he works as a personal trainer and a

physical therapist. Darryl enjoys working with people and helping them

reach for their goals.

Working for GBA has been a very special journey for Darryl. For he was

once a teenager in need of focus. He trains children, gives workshops, and

engages in community outreach. Daryl feels really lucky to be part of an

organization that strives for empowering future leaders through sports and

give them confidence.

-I want to be a change agent for my community.

- I want to be an enabler for empowerment and change.

- I want to become someone in my community.

- I hope to be a person that inspires & help people reach their goal.

Trigger: “I want to give back to my community by being an inspiration to others .”

Met Gator in a gameBecome a role model

Leader in the community

Be a change agent

Life coach

Build confidence

Coaches youth of GBA

Attends seminars

Does workshopsIs part of GBA Ambassadors

Works with elderly once a week

Does tournaments

Tryout for GBA coach

Pedagogy seminars

Training seminars

before program

during program after program

How We ServeEffective community engagement and growth comes with a deep

understanding of how you and your organization function, including an

awareness of what happens behind the scenes.

Below is a map plotting the relationship between two participants in GBA,

the ways that they interact with each other, the community, and GBA as an

organization, and the skills used at each juncture.

TheStudent

Training Session in GBA Gardening Session

Garden in SHS

Tournament

In a school in Savannah

Community Enagement

Gymnasium in SHSPhysical Touchpoints

TheCoach

Backstage

Other Peoplein GBA

SKILLS obtain in each step

Gymnasium at Savannah High School

He arrives at GBAready to train.

He gets the basketballsand heads to the court.

He is setting the courtand starts warming up.

He coaches the team gives tips, runs them

through the techniques.

Coaches, Referees,Directs,Helps.

Motivates the team for next session.Cleans the gym.

He warms up and practices the routine

with other fellow teammates.

He works on their new techniques, and

rehearsesold ones

Practice is overHe helps

with the equipment.

His task of the day:Treat the soil for the

upcoming tomato season

Helps gather the carrotsand teaches the specialneeds kids to cultivate

the tomato seeds.

He organizes and cleans the areaof the garden.

He rides the bus withother GBA members

to a tournament

He rides the bus andmentors the team before the game.

He coaches the team throught the game.Helps them focus.

Talks to people, coaches,

community people.

Works withyoung kids coaching

and training them.

He does many team building skills

with them.

He always has a moment to ask them;

What was your highlight of the week?

He warms up and plays the game with opposing team.

He socializes withpeople from

the tournamentand the community

Once a week hedoes Big Brother

with GBA kids

He meets with thekids helps in training,

plays ball with them andsupports them.

Engagement notlimited to GBA activities,

includes homeworkhelp as well

Coordinates with SHS hours for GBA.

Seminars with Gatorto deliver session.

Part of the mission of GBA,

accountability.

Took a seminar lastweek on preparationof soil for gardening.

Schuedule of tournament.

Invited as a specialguest in the community

SHS people/other members of

GBA from 15-17years

Gator & Debra arepart of the gardening

session.

Gator Facilitatesthe gardening

process.

They help clean the area and the

crop.

Gator- goes to game to promoteGBA and handball.

Gator & Debra are in the side line

suppoting GBA.

Handball tricks and engages with people

in the community

GBAservice blueprint

• Accountability• Organization

• Team Building• Focus on the goal• Socialize

• Compromise• Responsibility

• Help• Cooperate

• Create Empathy • Accountability• Proactive

• Responsibility • Team buildingskills

• Develop socialskills

• Cooperate• Share• Inspire

• Communicate• Support• Help

• Motivate young kids • Become thier friends

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TheStudent

Training Session in GBA Gardening Session

Garden in SHS

Tournament

In a school in Savannah

Community Enagement

Gymnasium in SHSPhysical Touchpoints

TheCoach

Backstage

Other Peoplein GBA

SKILLS obtain in each step

Gymnasium at Savannah High School

He arrives at GBAready to train.

He gets the basketballsand heads to the court.

He is setting the courtand starts warming up.

He coaches the team gives tips, runs them

through the techniques.

Coaches, Referees,Directs,Helps.

Motivates the team for next session.Cleans the gym.

He warms up and practices the routine

with other fellow teammates.

He works on their new techniques, and

rehearsesold ones

Practice is overHe helps

with the equipment.

His task of the day:Treat the soil for the

upcoming tomato season

Helps gather the carrotsand teaches the specialneeds kids to cultivate

the tomato seeds.

He organizes and cleans the areaof the garden.

He rides the bus withother GBA members

to a tournament

He rides the bus andmentors the team before the game.

He coaches the team throught the game.Helps them focus.

Talks to people, coaches,

community people.

Works withyoung kids coaching

and training them.

He does many team building skills

with them.

He always has a moment to ask them;

What was your highlight of the week?

He warms up and plays the game with opposing team.

He socializes withpeople from

the tournamentand the community

Once a week hedoes Big Brother

with GBA kids

He meets with thekids helps in training,

plays ball with them andsupports them.

Engagement notlimited to GBA activities,

includes homeworkhelp as well

Coordinates with SHS hours for GBA.

Seminars with Gatorto deliver session.

Part of the mission of GBA,

accountability.

Took a seminar lastweek on preparationof soil for gardening.

Schuedule of tournament.

Invited as a specialguest in the community

SHS people/other members of

GBA from 15-17years

Gator & Debra arepart of the gardening

session.

Gator Facilitatesthe gardening

process.

They help clean the area and the

crop.

Gator- goes to game to promoteGBA and handball.

Gator & Debra are in the side line

suppoting GBA.

Handball tricks and engages with people

in the community

GBAservice blueprint

• Accountability• Organization

• Team Building• Focus on the goal• Socialize

• Compromise• Responsibility

• Help• Cooperate

• Create Empathy • Accountability• Proactive

• Responsibility • Team buildingskills

• Develop socialskills

• Cooperate• Share• Inspire

• Communicate• Support• Help

• Motivate young kids • Become thier friends

How We OrganizeOne of the primary keys to effective organizations is prioritization and

concentration on core competencies. Every decision must be evaluated against

some set of criteria in order to decide if it is alignment with organisational

goals, both in the short and long term.

Below, we have taken a first pass at establishing a hierarchy of decision making

criteria for Gatorball Academy. These criteria are based on conversations we

had with the organization, observations of their existing product offerings, and

several sessions of introspective activities.

These are not intended to be prescriptive, but provocative, an example of one

possible alignment patter for GBA’s core services.

Delivery SystemWebsite

Word-Of-Mouth

Printed Advertisement

Enabling ServicesTeam building

Workshops & Classes

Basketball training

Gardening skills

Civic Engagement

Tournaments

Facilitating ServicesBasketball

Gardening

Core ProductYouth Empowerment

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How WeImpact PeopleUntil an organization reaches outside of itself and establishes some form of

contact with the outside world, it is merely a think tank. This reaching out is

manifested through ‘touchpoints’, which are simply physical moments when

the organization and the participant come into contact.

Throughout the experience of organization/participant contact, the

touchpoints may shift, and their meaning may also shift.

Below, we’ve provided examples of touchpoints that exist, either currently or

aspirationally, between Gatorball Academy and their participants, before, during

and after the actual duration of the program.

Before GBAWord of Mouth

Print Advertising

Web Advertising

Website

Social Media

During GBATransport Shuttle

Basketball Court

Garden

Nutrition Bar

Family Olympics

Big Brother

After GBAUniformsGBA Gear

Trophies

Vegetables from garden

Media Publicity

Memories

example:

A positioning statement is a tool designed to allow organizations, or even

individuals, to assess their relationship to other groups (people) doing similar

work. What makes you unique? What niche does your organization fill, and how

does this enable you to be more effective?

We’ve provided the blank template below as a tool to enable new levels of

understanding and focus. We’ve also filled out an example version.

How Do We Relate?

WHAT

HOW

TO WHOM

WHERE

WHY

WHEN

I’m the only

that

for

in

that want(s) to

in an era of

I’m the only youth empowerment organization that engages youth through sport and gardening for children in Savannah who want to become future leaders in an era of complicated community issues.

“”

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How Do We Fit?By comparing your organization with others doing

similar work in your local region on a set of criteria,

the functional space for your organization can

begin to be defined.

To the right is a quick positioning exercise, by no

means comprehensive, executed with a few high-

level searches for community based organizations

operating the Savannah area. These organizations

were roughly rated on a set of criteria, which

allowed for a comparison with Gatorball Academy.

youth empowermentthrough sports

community shelter

community engagement

outreachprogram

YMCA of Coastal Georgia

American Second Harvest Kids Cafe

Performance InitiativesGBA

Boy Scouts of America

Fellowship of Christian Athletes

United Way of the Coastal Empire

The American Legion

Habitat For Humanity

American Diabetes Association Step Up Savannah

Choice Neighborhood Youth Advisory Board

What IsImportant?Much of the material presented here is the codification of a series of exercises

we conducted with Gator Rivers and Debra Hasan designed to illuminate the

work that they are already accomplishing through Gatorball Academy, and to

provide a roadmap for continued growth.

The photos on this page and the following page illustrate the results of one

of those activities; an exercise centered around goal setting and prioritization

in an effort to concentrate on increasing the efficacy of core competencies.

How could GBA get better at what they already do well, by setting aside

organizational elements that might distract from their mission and values?

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Short Term Goals Mid Term Goals Long Term Goals• Work As A Team

• Understand Community Resources

• Enjoy Sports and Gardening

• Awareness Of Others

• Receives And Gives Positive Feedback

• Develops Relationships With Adults

• Abides By Rules And Contracts

• Build / Improve Basketball Skills

• Learns To Avoid Risks

• Leads / Speaks In Front Of Groups

• Participates In Community Service

• Connection

• Goal Setting

• Independence

• Solid Winning Team

• Collaboration

• Income, Prevention Of Poverty

• Confidence

• Empathy

• Competence

• High School Graduation

• Compassion

• Healthy Living / Mind, Body, Spirit

• Problem Solvers

• Self Motivation

• College Education

• Leaders / Community Ambassadors

• Freedom From Cultural Stigmas

• Athletic Success / College, Professional

• Character / Doing The Right Thing

• Personal Success

• Sustainability

• The Value In Giving Back

“We’re trying to find out who

our niche is. We believe it’s

middle school and elemen-

tary school...because this is

when they are so impres-

sionable and they say, “ Oh

I’ll always remember, I was

six years old when you came

to my school.”

(Gator Rivers)

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CONCLUSION7.Real community happens when our stories collide with other people’s. Real

community action happens when we look at the bits and pieces that fly off

during those collisions, and realize that they mean something. We can realize that

homelessness doesn’t have the face we thought it did, or that we have a voice and

someone is listening. We can discover that the world is a more complicated place

than we thought, but we can also discover that we have agency in that world, and

that our voices and stories have tangible impacts on the people and systems around

us.

This book is about story, and agency, and discoveries, and growth, and awakenings.

To call the weeks that the students, both from SCAD and the high schools, spent

together a process or a project seems wrong in a way, because processes are

inherently inhuman. These weeks could not have happened if our group of

designers went into the high schools and dictated what was about to happen; if we

were just one more authority figure telling a group of teenagers what they could

and couldn’t do. Instead, we all discovered that there was a new and better way of

doing things, and that way was fundamentally human.

Together we learned. Together we discovered what impact the community had

on us, and what impact we could have on the community. We sincerely hope that

the stories that you’ve read here, the beautiful struggles and wonderful successes,

will inspire you to go out and do. After all, groups make change, but groups need

people. Start there, and give people a voice. You never know what might happen.

Robynn ButlerLakewood, COrobynnbutler.prosite.com

Eric GreenLakeport, [email protected]

“There is so much opportunity to bring more empowerment and awareness to these students’ lives. All of them want to be successful and do the right thing.”.

“There is value here, value in the emotional connections that have been made. There is something larger than ourselves and we have something to give.”

Marina PetrovaSliven, [email protected]

“I continue to be amazed how magical connecting to someone is. Design does that for me. I hope it does the same for others too.”.

Carol LoraSan Juan,[email protected]@student.scad.edu

“I realize that I love working with teenagers, and making them feel that they can accomplish anything if they put the effort.”.

David SherwinAlexandria, [email protected]

“You can never underestimate the innate knowledge, empathy, and perspective of anyone you collaborate with. Every conversation is a gift. ”.

katie MansellCookeville, [email protected]

“High school students have a unique outlook on the world and are willing to think critically to create ways to enact change if only given the opportunity and enabled with confidence in the value of their own efforts.”.

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OUR TEAM8.

Naz (Najmeh) MirzaieTehran, [email protected]://www.behance.net/NajmehMirzaie

“The best memory from this experience for me is about our final class. During the presentation to the Beach High School Principal, the most quiet student in our class professionally presented his part and even went further and strongly advocated the idea of Violence Free Week: “I think violence week will make a huge impact!”.

Nathan SundbergChester, [email protected]

“As designers, we talk about creating with and for people, but often don’t get out there and do it. This project grew us, me, by tossing us in the deep end, where the current is strong, and the path unclear. But hearing the stories and watching the evolutions reminded me of why I do what I do: because there are people out there, and they need to know they have a voice.”.

Scott BoylstonNew York City, [email protected]

“I’ve been honored to bear witness to the power of transformation when individuals are given the opportunity to combine their unique insights in order to actualize a vision that is defined and created by the group as a whole.”.

Alexandra PappalardoChicago, [email protected]

“It’s amazing how much transformation took place, both in myself and the students, in such a short amount of time.”.

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THANK YOU9.The teachers at Groves, Beach and Savannah High Schools; Ms. Dawson, Ms. Green,

Ms. Wilson and Ms. Reese– you allowed us to disrupt your normal curriculum and

get to know your students, you partnered with us in the activities and we hope that

you got as much out of it as we did.

David Sherwin and Erin Sanders at Frog Design; you entrusted us with the results

of your work and said “go forth and learn!” We thank you for providing us with the

opportunity to work with this beautiful toolkit, and for allowing us the space to

change and contextualize it, and provide feedback.

Marvin Heery, who visited the team at Groves High to lend perspective and his

experience to their exploration of homelessness in the community

Debra Hasan and Gator Rivers, without whom there would be no teams at schools.

Deb connected SCAD with the high schools and facilitated the entire process. Gator

inspired us all with his passion and love of people. We thank you deeply for inviting

us in, and letting us look and touch!

Professor Scott Boylston, who said from day one that we as students would be

thrown into a complex and chaotic field of play, and that adaptability and flexibility

were the attributes that would save us. You provided a space for us to step outside

of designing in a studio for abstract concepts and connected us to real people,

reminding us of why we do what we do in a deep and fundamental way.

we have a voice!

Documents

cat activities

community action

community members

community issues

synthesis of cat findings

sustainable practices

best practices

graduate students