Design Ed 4 Resilience in PR               

 

Here’s an overview of how my work works in PR and a chronology of examples:

 

 

Design Ed for Resilience interconnects three main elements of society to bring about individual and collective efficacy and resilience, using Design Thinking to develop climate change adaptation, mitigation and disaster recovery capacities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summary of work--Resilience efficacy-oriented curriculum and adaptation capacity-building in communities:

 

PR DE: Created “back to school” after Maria guide for teachers, October 2017.  Two weeks after the storm, teachers needed a way to face the classroom and begin re-establishing momentum toward PBL, in many cases with no materials or school building.

 

Through Echar Pa’lante & DE, I ran design thinking workshop for educators and leaders, with Esc. FMC students and staff facilitating, April 2018. Echar Pa’lante (Fundacion Banco Popular’s business resilience and entrepreneurship curriculum engine) included design thinking/creative problem solving in its six-part curriculum. This was the first workshop of its kind on the island, and provided an experience that could shift the paradigm to student-led professional development.

 

Through Echar Pa’lante & DE, I presented on design thinking and resilience, 200 educators in attendance, August 2018. I connected design thinking in education, effiacy-building, and climate change resilience. 

 

PR DE: I trained 180 teachers in design thinking, with 20 co-facilitators, among them PR design thinkers, Esc. FMC teachers, students, February, 2019.  Teachers were involved in the Echar Pa’lante entrepreneurship program. I created a team of four experienced design thinkers (two educators; two practitioners), who co-facilitated the day with 16 adult and student facilitators-in-training.

 

Esc. FMC (Bayamón) and El Pueblo Unido Program (EPU),

Intersession hosted Design Ed 4 Resilience “Design Labs”:

 

In January 2019 Intersession, “my” students used design thinking to :

A.  Create Resilient Community Hub designs.

        a.   Partners: Engine-4, Christine Nieves, Mariana/Humacao (ARECMA), ResilientSEE

B.   Create Emergency Mgt Plans for families, and the school.

        a.   Partners: PR DE, US Coast Guard

C.   Create a Nutrition & Health Café, Centro MAM

        a.   Partners: Centro MAM, Middlebury College

 

In May 2019 Intersession, “my” students used design thinking to:

A.  Create four Coastal Climate Change Impact solutions with

       a.   Villa Calma (Toa Baja) Community leaders, US Coast Guard, ResilientSEE

B.   Create four-minute video explaining how kids think design thinking is helping them to prepare for their future of climate change challenge and innovation, with

       a.  Docutribe, Margaret Mair

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February 2020 RISE partnership participatory workshops for teachers and community educators in Humacao, Mayagüez, and Cayey.  Using design thinking to add to toolkit to bridge trauma first aid to everyday teaching to build self- and shared efficacy and resilience, or the confidence that comes from knowing how to make a difference individually and collectively.

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July-August 2020 through present  UPR-M faculty and graduate students team up with me, Pamela Silva Díaz, grad students from UPR-M and teams from 11 communities.  Using design thinking, we co-created solutions for energy independence, emergency cleanliness, and family activity journalling to prevent COVID spread. Currently expanding pilot process bridging 'designed FOR' to 'designed BY' so that community teams can design and build security in the future.

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January 2021-2024 and beyond: Began 3-year research and action collaboration with two universities (UPR-Mayagüez and Royal Roads University), and four schools and their communities (UHS-Rio Piedras, Edison-Caguas, CROEV-Villalba, Esc. Superior Leonides Morales-Lajas). Looking into whether Decolonial and Regenerative Design Thinking empowers youth and their communities to design for climate risk reduction.