Communitology

Created affordable, seasonal activities for the Cada Paso community that engages both parents and children while educating them on the natural resources around them.

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Cada Paso is a weekend walking program for families in East Harlem, formed in partnership between Little Sisters of the Assumption Family Health Service and local health providers.

Cada Paso’s year-round evolving curriculum of walks are tailored to address parents’ health concerns. By combining the physical activity of walking with educational content, conversation with allied health professionals, social networking and on-the-spot access to health resources we endeavor to empower families with the tools to preserve and enhance their health and achievement. Our families also participate in neighborhood transformation initiatives, to promote health and achievement for the whole community.

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Context

Role: User Experience Design,  Participatory Design, Community Driven Design

Tools: Adobe Indesign

Problem

A lot of children participate in these walks with their parents or older family members. We observed that the kids were not interested in the conversations between the health professionals and the adults.

Design Questions

How do we keep the children engaged?

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How can these activities foster education based interactions between parent and child?

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How can these activities be educational?

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How can these activities be cheap and sustsainable?

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Holloween

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Thanksgiving

Takeaways

This and the 'Monster Bag' activity were successful in terms of the child to parent interactions, affordability, and educational.

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The educational element lies within the materials for each activity. For these activities, both child and parent need to find and use natural resources: sticks, leaves, etc. By getting participants to search for and use these materials it reveals how we can recycle materials for purposes of play! 

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