LifeMoves
Educate and engage - one workshop at a time
LifeMoves, the remarkable organization dedicated to providing housing and social services to unhoused families in the Bay Area, teamed up with us to design a service to educate donor families about the causes and solutions surrounding homelessness. With a target audience of parents and their kids aged 7-16, we knew we had to create an experience that was both engaging and informative. We kicked-off our collaboration with an in-person workshop, and then we ventured into the digital realm for the second phase.
Case Study
How involved do donors want to be?
To understand what motivates people to get involved with charitable organizations, we chatted with some of LifeMoves' valued donors. They shed light on how they desired a deeper connection with the organization and its community. We also interviewed parents and kids, exploring their experiences with learning about social action opportunities. But we didn't stop there – we hosted a brainstorming session with families, gathering ideas to get started.
Crafting empathy through storytelling.
We dived into the world of kid-friendly activities and unleashed our creativity. Crafts, short videos, and captivating presentations took center stage. We also knew the importance of getting up and moving around to keep the excitement flowing. Prepared with pens and paper, we sketched ideas for presentation stories, games, and take-home activities.
With the workshop goals in mind, we curated a delightful lineup of activities perfectly suited for our young audience. A few favorites include:
- Budgeting game: Kids became financial wizards as they planned a real budget with play money, gaining first hand insight into the cost of living in the Bay Area.
- Documentary video: A powerful video from a child's viewpoint allowed young participants to challenge stereotypes surrounding unhoused individuals and families.
- Costs of living story: An engaging illustrated story revealed the expenses of living in the Bay Area compared to other parts of the country and California.
Creating family value - hands-on and dynamic.
We hosted two prototype workshops, inviting family friends to join us in testing the activities and fine-tuning the timing and flow. After each session, we collected feedback and collaborated with LifeMoves to refine and reorder certain activities.
With these insights in hand, we launched the first official workshop, welcoming 4-5 donor families to our transformative experience.
The workshops brought two resounding successes:
- The kids relished the opportunity to create budgets with the guidance of their parents. Working together, they made decisions about essentials and non-essentials to buy and learned to set aside money for emergencies.
- The illustrated presentation expertly blended storytelling with valuable facts and numbers, keeping the kids engaged while imparting essential knowledge about the cost of living in the Bay Area.
Maintaining meaning with the move to virtual.
As the pandemic reshaped our world, LifeMoves approached us with the idea of transforming the workshop into a remote experience.
We embraced the challenge and devised a two-part approach: an at-home asynchronous component and a synchronous Zoom gathering. Families received instructions for activities they could do at home, complete with discussion prompts to foster meaningful conversations. Later, they met up with LifeMoves on Zoom for further discussions and the much-anticipated budgeting game.
To adapt the budgeting game to the virtual realm, we transformed it into an online game using Google Slides. This allowed participants to play remotely during the workshop. It's still available here!
The Results
LifeMoves continues to host these in person and virtual workshops, empowering potential donor families with knowledge about homelessness in the Bay Area and inspiring them to get involved. If you and your family are eager to make a difference, be sure to check out their website. Together, we can iterate to create a more secure housing future for all.
