ACTIVITIES: GENERATIVE RESEARCH, COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS

Early childhood development has been found to be a major contributor to lifelong success. 

Robinhood approached us to see if through out Human Centered Design process we would be able to see and hear things that they cannot through the philanthropic work. Their how was that our findings would help them plan their capital budget for affecting change on low income communities by investing in early childhood development. 

There isn’t a silver bullet, but if we listen we can begin to form a perspective. 

We conducted in person one on one interviews, intercepts, group interviews and workshops with local community members, SME’s, and parents. Through their varied stories we were able to identify subjects of further exploration helping us narrow down on some of the common narratives of early childhood development in NYC. 

Our research both aligned with what is known, but shed new light on approaches to be taken.

It would be arrogant to say that a limited scope project like this would seek to “solve” these issues, however, it’s an opportunity for those involved to adopt different ways of thinking and acting to reach desired outcomes, or even change what an outcome should be. For an organization like Robin hood to begin to factor in qualitative inputs on top of their already quantitative evaluation would help more quickly adjust funding schemes for future programs.