Mod. 7 Activity & Reflection - Visioning Part 1

Articulate your concept using the why/what/how framework to explain your concept coherently and precisely.

WHY:

The relevance? - America is accepting more immigrant refugees into the United States than ever before. All of these people have been displaced for various reasons and must now restart their lives.

The appeal? - “You’re Welcome Here!” exists to raise awareness about these groups in order to minimize xenophobia and provide additional resources to existing refugee resettlement networks.

The problem it solves? - Combatting and mitigating xenophobia and shaping new American identities.

The insight/user need that it leverages? - “You’re Welcome Here!” leverages the power of storytelling and shared experiences to combat the rising rates of various forms of xenophobia against minorities.

WHAT:

The essence? - An advocacy and resource agency for immigrant refugees in America.

The alluring vision? - To create a pipeline for the creation of American identity for immigrant refugees resettling in various American cities.

The novel concept? - Leveraging the power of storytelling and shared experience to create positive community relations among new neighbors with different backgrounds.

The key benefits offered? - Opportunities for immigrant refugees and established local Americans to meet and learn more about one another through shared experiences.

HOW:

The compelling and concrete ideas to make this concept come alive? - Most xenophobia is rooted in fear of the unknown, assumptions of another group’s motives, and a blanket perception based in stereotypes. You’re Welcome Here! Addresses all of those issues by creating live experiences that illustrate the parallels between immigrant refugees and established local communities.

The delivery mechanism? - An advocacy and resource agency staffed by veterans in the field of immigration, community advocates and leaders, and event organizers.

FINAL CONCEPT ARTICULATION:

“You’re Welcome Here!” is an advocacy and resource agency dedicated to raising awareness of, and creating welcoming spaces for, the growing number of immigrant refugees resettling in America. By leveraging the expertise of leaders in the field of immigration with the power of shared experience and storytelling, “You’re Welcome Here!” combats xenophobic violence and supports our new refugee neighbors to establish American identities by producing events for them to meet local community members and learn more about one another through shared experiences that illustrate the parallels of their respective lives.

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Reflection Prompt: Pushing for Breakthrough Ideas — Based on your sensing phase and the creative question you have identified, what are approaches you may consider taking to come up with a breakthrough concept to address the social challenge you are choosing?

The Creative Question centered around my Social Business Model for You're Welcome Here! is: "How might we create welcoming spaces for refugee children in America, given that they *presumably* don't speak much English?"

Similar to Meg, I find it useful to think of Divergent Thinking as a parallel to elements of the Probing Process we engaged with over the summer. I also see Divergent Thinking as an opportunity to apply one of the concepts Nina Simon introduced us to during our Capstone Prep Week, to dream big and imagine ourselves 5 years from now, when “You’re Welcome Here!” has become an even larger success than I ever imagined and I am catching up with a friend who has known me and followed the work’s development from afar during that time. I’ve labeled this process as “Brainstorming The Impossible Dream” as a means to remove any barriers that might limit what possibilities I might think of. For example, in order to make spaces more welcoming for refugee children, could I partner with different universities to create a job pipeline for students studying English to become translators for refugee children upon graduation?

Once the Divergent Thinking process has occurred and solutions to the Impossible Dream have been identified, Lateral Thinking strikes me as an excellent opportunity for added research. For “You’re Welcome Here!” Some questions I would want to research include: How have other refugee groups answered this question in the past? How have other country’s governments answered this question? Are there other social issues that are similar and might provide insight into how to answer this question?

The final step would be to take knowledge gained from added research (Lateral Thinking), combine it with the ideas generated from brainstorming (Divergent Thinking) and synthesize them together (Convergent Thinking). An example of “Low Hanging Fruit” might be to hire any refugees who are already fluent in English as translators for children, thus also providing the family with income. An example of a “Bright Star” would be to create a pathway to American citizenship for individuals who have certification, expertise, and practice in working with refugee children in other countries.