TL;DR - Read a 2 minute summary of the event in this article here.
What is
A 48-hour design challenge where participants work alongside a community organization that has a challenge that could benefit from our help with a fresh approach. In a 48 hour time frame, teams collaborate with stakeholders of the community organization to propose solutions following the project prompt.
This year, the American Red Cross of the Western New York region partnered with us to ask:
How can the Red Cross attract a more diverse volunteer workforce to support the Disaster Action Team (DAT) and the Home Fire Campaign (HFC)?
I worked with designers Kennedy Intihar and Michelle Fu to:
Learn about the Red Cross in Rochester and the DAT/HFC,
Interview DAT members,
Understand demographic populations in Rochester, and
Determine the goal, research, and plan of action for our proposal.
Research
About The Programs
American Red Cross
Organization built to prevent & alleviate suffering through the mobilization of volunteers; a non-profit organization that supports humanitarian aid.
90% of the Red Cross’s humanitarian work is done by volunteers.
Their main call of action in Western NY is house fires (almost 1 per day).
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Disaster Action Team (DAT)
Local disaster responder team within the Red Cross, committed to provide 24-hour immediate support and assistance to individuals and families who have been impacted by a home fire or other local disaster.
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Home Fire Campaign (HFC)
Team within the Red Cross who install smoke detectors in Rochester homes for free.
Saved over 50 homes in 2022.
Understanding the Demographic
The Red Cross would like more volunteers within certain area codes. There are certain area codes with a lot of disaster calls and a low number of volunteers. We collected data from
www.unitedstateszipcodes.org based on these zip codes and compared them to the demographic of DAT members. Here's what we learned:
Q&A with the DAT Coordinator
We got to ask Monroe County DAT Coordinator Carl Harder some questions about involvement in the DAT. Here are some key takeaways:
Based on our research and the answers from the Q&A, we determined our core objective:
Creating Our Proposal
We came up with 2 options that we thought would be an effective plan to convince a new audience to volunteer for Red Cross’s DAT and HFC programs:
Option 1
Option 2
