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YMCA Changemaker Initiative
Design for America National Project
PROJECT SCOPE
Design for America (DFA) National Partnership Project
TEAM
Heather Laiter (Co-Lead)
Mrunal Aras (Co-Lead)
Meg VanDuesen
Jackie Gamper
Ali Mehdi
SKILLS
User Research, Customer Insight Synthesis, Concept Generation, Prototyping, Facilitation
DURATION
8 months
With over 2,400 chapters and 9 million youth members, the YMCA approached DFA to discover why their young members, ages 15-22, referred to as "Changemakers", are no longer at the center of programming on a local and national level.
Problem
Our Process
A key step was to understand the landscape and understand the challenges. Through secondary and primary research with YMCA leadership, staff, and Changemakers we were able to narrow our focus.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
How can we increase youth involvement in a way they identify with and feel more represented?
Reframe
Reframing the problem
Insight Discovery
Insights
Ideation
Ideation
Design Principles
OUR SOLUTION
A national, digital organizational tool to connect changemakers with each other and their communities in locally appropriate ways, and be recognized for the difference their contributions make in their communities
Protoyping
PROTOTYPE OVERVIEW
Platform:Counting mY CHANGE
High fidelity walk through
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