Lancaster County Community Foundation (LCCF) is shaping a Lancaster County where every individual is valued, has a sense of belonging, and has the opportunity to thrive.
TOPIC AREAS
Civic Participation
PROJECT TYPES
Programs & Services
Communications
In 2019, sensing fragmentation and isolation across the country, LCCF wondered how residents might feel a greater sense of belonging. And recognizing a decline in civic engagement across Lancaster County, they wanted to inspire more residents to get involved in improving their community.
GGS helped to design and facilitate Project Activate, a community-centered design process that built capacity and ownership for a host of new initiatives, while giving local leaders a greater sense of belonging and connection to place.
Project Outputs
This project followed a modified “train-the-trainer” approach. While GGS delivered workshops and coaching in the urban Southeast community, the client team facilitated a parallel process in the rural Paradise community nearby. The two processes were just a few weeks apart, and this allowed the client team to participate in each GGS-led session, then immediately facilitate the same session with a different group. In addition to group-facing materials, GGS delivered detailed facilitation guides.
Client & Community Outcomes
One Project Activate team focused on the lack of positive media coverage for the Southeast neighborhood. After many years of little or negative attention from local news outlets, they decided to start their own.
The SouthEast Times prototype is where it all began.
Today, the SouthEast Times provides positive news and community resources on Facebook, Instagram, and in print as a monthly publication.
Another Project Activate team focused on the idea of Black and brown unity – bringing multiple minority communities together to bridge divides and appreciate each others’ strengths and cultures. Here is the first prototype for the Southeast Lancaster Cultural Fest, which took place in 2022.
Finally, another Project Activate team started an initiative called SouthEast Worx, to better connect younger residents to employment opportunities. They planned and hosted monthly career fairs to address the need for consistency and serve as a dependable resource for both job-seekers and local employers.
Even though this project had to go on pause at the start of COVID-19, it re-started in 2021 and the team is making their vision a reality. One year after the close of our engagement, about half of the design team members were still working on pilot projects.
Team & Studio Impact
This client team was so committed to positive community change, that they wanted to learn how to facilitate it themselves! This project was the first time that we adapted our community-centered design approach to a train-the-trainer model. It was refreshing to get to make tweaks to our model based on reflections of how it had gone in previous versions.
For example, rather than coaching in small groups, we moved to a full-group coaching structure. We iterated on previous pilot planning materials. And we were forced to consider not only what we said when we delivered these slides or introduced that activity, but what common questions arose and how we would recommend responding to them. This assignment inspired new levels of self-awareness and critical reflection.
The Greater Good Studio team helped me better understand how human centered design works in solving community problems. I also learned new methods of listening, the power of prototyping and most importantly – to trust the process!
Fran Rodriguez
