My Role

Project Director

Project Duration

2.5 Days

In the game of life, it could be said that the people here have been dealt difficult hands time and again, yet they are doing their best to persevere through faith, love and sheer determination.

Problem

During a Project Resound Challenge in Allendale, South Carolina we found a rural community that was poor in funds, yet rich in spirit. Allendale County is the 10th poorest county in America according to census reports. We learned that it has undergone a series of disasters including being burned to the ground by General Sherman and it's lucrative cotton industry destroyed by the Boll Weevil in the 1900's. The city's economy went flat again after I-95 made Interstate 301 obsolete, and the community had recently experienced a tornado—Whew!

Approach

During the Design Challenge our team experienced the following:

• Team Building

• Community Immersion

• Experiential Research

• Identification Through Emotional Connection

• Consolidation and Consensus building

• Ideation through Lateral Thinking

• Rapid Prototyping and Implementation

• Dissemination

Solution

To visual our experiences we created a card game that was an analogy of opportunities versus resources in life. We interviewed residents and asked them to randomly pick a card and to write what they loved about Allendale on the front—we were touched by their heartfelt sentiments and shared them with others so to inspire more talking, thinking, and smiling.