Maple Lane Community Engagement
As part of our community engagement process on Maple Lane Apartments, a project with Community Development Partners and Hacienda CDC, we recently held three 90-minute listening sessions and one 90-minute design workshop. The listening sessions were held over the phone, on Zoom, and in-person, physically-distanced, at Oakridge Affordable Apartments. The design workshop was held on Zoom and Miro, an online white board that we used for the interactive component of the workshop.
In the past, design workshops have typically happened around a few tables where participants could draw, use interactive tools, and discuss design decisions in-person. However, over the past year our community design process has had to change and evolve to ensure the health and safety of our participants and employees. Our Community Design Lab continues to research new tools that can be used during the current or any future event that requires physical-distancing. The Maple Design Workshop was the first collaborative virtual design workshop that we have held since being able to host workshops in-person. Instead of tables, we had Zoom breakout rooms where each discussion began with the prompt, “Describe a space or place that you feel comfortable and supported.” We then asked each participant to indicate with a “sticker” which elements they preferred or if there were any preferred elements missing, and to provide context on why they chose those elements on Miro boards similar to what we would use for in-person workshops. For the last activity, we collaborated on designs for the unit entryways to understand how the entryway could support individual expression.
While Zoom breakout rooms with Miro boards were successful for some, we intentionally created opportunities for participants to engage in other ways. Most of our senior participants provided valuable insight to us through listening sessions held on Zoom, over the phone, and in-person. Some senior participants even invited us into their apartment to show us what elements they liked about where they live and what they would change. Having these conversations with groups that represent a possible resident population at Maple Lane Apartments is critical to our design process and provided valuable insight on how to support aging in place and meaningful community connections within an apartment complex.
The Salazar team is so grateful for the time, effort, and emotion that each participant gave to us. Compensation is a necessary component of community engagement, and each participant was compensated with a gift card to respect the work they did for us.
