Design for Shalom

Design for Shalom

 

Emily Pilloton in her talk Teaching design for change () gives a fascinating account of how her non-profit organization Project H Design helps an impoverished community. In this inspiring story, Emily and her partner move to Bertie County in North Carolina that is experiencing the demise of the rural America. Educated people are leaving the county to move to big cities and the gentrification is taking its toll on community’s thus increasing rural poverty.

 

Pilloton bemoans the fact that there is no shared collective investment in the future of rural communities in the U.S. Only 6.8 percent of philanthropic funding benefits rural communities. Within Bertie County the public education system is struggling and this is where Emily’s organization comes to help.

 

Project H Design has six design directives that aid in the design process:

1. Design through action

2. Design with, not for

3. Design systems, not stuff

4. Document, share, and measure

5. Start locally, and scale globally

6. Build

 

The design directives are used to address the vacuum of creative capital that the gentrification has caused within the local community. The situation is bleak, there is no single licensed architect in the county and buildings are falling apart. Pilloton sees the opportunity to bring design as an untouched tool to Bertie county, something the community otherwise would not have access to. Initially their design efforts focused only on the educational system in Bertie however, they made it their goal to make their work in education a great vehicle for community development.

 

They used three approaches to the interface of design and education.

 

1.) Design for Education

How: build

What: spaces, materials, experiences (engaging in physical construction)

 

2.) Redesigning Education

How: design systems not stuff

What: services; markets, strategies (a systems level look at how education is administrated and what is being offered and to whom)

 

3.) Design as Education

How: Design with, not for

What: Community-focused design curricula and shop class renaissance (reintroducing shop class into the local high school and building things the community needs)

 

The final step is the one that Pilloton is most excited about. The shop class equips students and creates creative capital within the community (ethnographic research, technical drawing, creativity, implementation of projects that matter). Furthermore, here the connection point is made where the school projects meet needs in the community. Pilloton gives three examples of what is meant to be produced in the shop: open air farmers market down town, bus shelters, and home improvements for the elderly.

 

What I love about this project in Bertie is that it connects education and skill learning with blessing the community. This reminds me of God’s call in the book of Jeremiah to seek the shalom of the city (Jeremiah 29). What would churches be like if they use part of their activities not for themselves but for meeting needs in their local communities. Loving the community in this way also opens up doors for sharing the Gospel which is able to meet needs in people’s lives that no one but God can meet. I am thinking about how part of our youth ministry could be blessing people in Hong Kong and in other communities around the world. Exciting Stuff!