{"id":22850,"date":"2018-07-26T21:43:39","date_gmt":"2018-07-26T21:43:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/?p=22850"},"modified":"2018-07-26T21:43:39","modified_gmt":"2018-07-26T21:43:39","slug":"manhood-is-not-a-given-final-impact-project-with-sons-of-heru-black-male-leadership-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/manhood-is-not-a-given-final-impact-project-with-sons-of-heru-black-male-leadership-program\/","title":{"rendered":"“Manhood Is Not A Given.” Final impact project with Sons of Heru black male leadership program"},"content":{"rendered":"
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How I utilized creative problem solving through Design Thinking to support Black male leadership development in Detroit.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Design Thinking is a\u00a0design\u00a0methodology that provides a solution-based approach to solving problems. The five stages of\u00a0Design Thinking, according to d.school, are: Empathize, Define (the problem), Ideate, Prototype, and Test.<\/p>\n

I have a personal interest in indigenous wisdom, cultural preservation and personal development. So when the opportunity to select partners for our final impact project arose, I decided to contribute my capacity to an up-and-coming community organization focusing on rite of passage programs. Sons of Heru’s mission is to encourage the spiritual, mental, social, and physical development of young men. I reached out to them and they were interested in working together and we soon co-created our design question: \u201cHow might we engage a larger audience of Detroit\u2019s black male youth in leadership programs?\u201d<\/p>\n

Empathy<\/strong><\/p>\n

I started the design thinking process with community interviews. I reached out to a variety of stakeholders from residents and schools, to funding institutions and social work professionals. The insights I gathered was surprising.<\/p>\n

Define<\/strong><\/p>\n

Defining the problem. It turns out stakeholders interviewed enjoyed the program and thought it was a timely community need, however various barriers to participation arose that prohibited participants from fully committing to the program. These included: limited transportation, funding, socia<\/p>\n

l connectivity, and location. So the current issue focused more on barrier removal than participant engagement.\"\"<\/p>\n

Ideate<\/strong><\/p>\n

The next stage in the Design Thinking process is Ideation – coming up with as many ideas to creatively solve the problem. Ideas ranged from parent carpooling, community pitch competitions, introduction of bikes, youth councils, a \u201csilver circle\u201d of elders who could serve as mentors, mobile programing units, and partnering with local schools to name a few.<\/p>\n

Prototype<\/strong><\/p>\n

From the above ideation stage, I moved on to the prototype stage in which you build out your ideas. My deliverables included: 1) a community interview report with program recommendations to help inform Sons of Heru with the program design process; 2) A theory of change framework to support the project partner with funding applications; 3) Enhanced marketing materials to attract new participants to the program.<\/p>\n

Test<\/strong><\/p>\n

I tested my deliverables with various community members to get their feedback. After a few rounds of edits, I was ready to present my findings at our Impact Project showcase held at Tech Town!<\/p>\n

Overall, the project was a great way for me to explore the benefits of Design Thinking and community impact. I learned a great deal, from how to remain flexible and creative when plans change to the importance of project scoping and stakeholder engagement. I am looking forward to utilizing the tools I learned throughout the Fellowship for years to come!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How I utilized creative problem solving through Design Thinking to support Black male leadership development in Detroit. Design Thinking is a\u00a0design\u00a0methodology that provides a solution-based approach to solving problems. The five stages of\u00a0Design Thinking, according to d.school, are: Empathize, Define (the problem), Ideate, Prototype, and Test. I have a personal interest in indigenous wisdom, cultural […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22850\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}