Little Brothers, Friends of the Elderly (LBFE) is a program that connects volunteers with isolated and lonely elders in their community so they can benefit from having social relationships, even if they are homebound. The organization came with a problem they wanted help solving. They had more volunteers than elders in their program. While having too many volunteers is not a bad problem to have, they wanted help reaching more elderly in need in the Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis. Overall, this was a really great opportunity to develop design strategy and it was a privilege to work with an organization that does a lot of good.
Methods Used
Stakeholder Interviews - Secondary Research - Journey Mapping - Scenarios
Tools Used
Sketch - Storyboards
I worked with a team to create a strategy for them to reach more elders. We used the information that had been given to us and paired it with secondary source research to help build our strategy. We ended up focusing our efforts on creating partnerships with local organizations that interact with the elderly on a regular basis as well as raising awareness about loneliness and isolation of elders.
Receiving input on process and mapping it in different ways helped clarify our plan and be able to look at it from different ways.
We brought everything we had learned through out the week and turned it into a findings and recommendations report for client. This included plans on how to partner with other local organizations, examples of different materials that the organization could pass out to gain awareness, and example programs they could put on to get the neighborhood involved. It also included a stop motion video that involved displaying partner relationships that I got to storyboard out and help put together. It was a really fun way to infuse a little more creativity into a project that was largely strategy based.
Below is the video we sent the client outlining our strategy for engaging more elderly folks in the neighborhood.
An implementation road map and measurements for success were also created to help Little Brothers break down the process into more manageable pieces and measurements so they know what success looks like in this situation.
This week had its challenges, but ultimately it was incredibly rewarding to come up with a practical plan that Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly could take on. The work they do is so important and by pairing with local organizations that also work to serve that population, they can work together to do even more good.