Building Blocks

Building Blocks brings neighbors’ visions for Flatbush come to life through creative problem solving! This year’s focus: waste management.

Building Blocks is the debut project of Design for Agency, a budding community-focused design practice founded by Flatbush resident, Taylor Kuhn. The project asks Flatbush neighbors, organizations and government to share their concerns about the area, and explores them through a series of pop-up and group “creative problem solving workshops”.

These workshops are designed to empower neighbors to use creative tools to develop ideas that can either be enacted in reality, or proposed to local government and organizations to make their voices heard in an impactful way. The issue we are building ideas for this round is waste management.

We’ve partnered with the folks of Community Board 14 to connect participants’ efforts directly to civic decision-making. Members of the board will give feedback on in-progress projects and presentations in mid October. The wider public, including local organizations and community leaders will offer feedback as well.

Visit www.designforagency.com (Click on Building Blocks In Progress for the project blog) to learn more!

What We’ve Done So Far / Feb. 1 – Jun. 31:

Design for Agency conducted research across Flatbush, using surveys and a voting table, asking neighbors to share what they felt most needed improvement and what is currently working in the area. This research revealed the top three concerns are:

1. Housing Affordability

2. Waste Management

3. Lifting NYers out of poverty

Because this is a new project, we will focus on the most tangible issue – waste management – using the other issues as key guiding considerations.

The top aspects of the community that are working (and that we will use as inspiration) are:

1. Diversity

2. Trust Between Neighbors

3. Local Business Development

Next Steps to be Supported by Campaign / July 29 – October 30th:

Building Blocks will host three sessions of pop-up workshops throughout Flatbush, to explore what we’ve learned.

• Pop-up Workshop Sessions 1: Understanding the problem / Jul. 29 – Aug. 19:

  • Breaking down the problem into smaller pieces  

  • Social media & email photo / video scavenger hunt to observe the current problem in the context of Flatbush.

• Pop-up Workshop Sessions 2: Identifying community resources / Aug. 20 – Aug. 31:

  • Considering each broken down piece of larger problem from previous workshop session, neighbors will identify possible community resources to address issues.

  • Social media & email photo / video scavenger hunt to observe possible resources.

• Pop-up Workshop Sessions 3: Bringing it all together / Sept. 1 – Sept. 13

  • Participants will play a game, applying the positive resources to the problems, developing mini proposals for projects to be implemented in the neighborhood to be voted on in a public exhibition.

• Exhibition / Sep. 17 – Oct 6:

  • Design for Agency will bring the mini proposals together that developed from the game in session 3 in a public exhibition on Sunday, Sep. 17 at Flatbush Frolic, hosted by the Flatbush Development Corporation.

  • 3 week public exhibition of mini proposals to be voted on. Top voted proposals will be implemented throughout October.

• Implementation (Group Sessions) / Oct. 9 – Oct 28

  • Participants will collaborate to actualize proposals, learning to engage with organizations, government and fellow neighbors, using found or donated recycled materials.

• Report / Delivery in November

  • Publishing the project, including all phases and learnings, to share success / stress points and stories of connections made and skills developed.

Your donations will support each step of this process.

This project is inspired largely by the belief that when the community is more engaged in civic activities, their needs and concerns are more prioritized by local government, acting as an incentive for neighbors to invest their time and effort into making the community a vibrant and healthy place to live. 

Additionally, while government is mandated to provide and manage essential resources, they can only do so much. It’s up to residents to work together to ensure their neighborhoods become a home, and a place we can use our relationships as a source of resilience.

Building Blocks hopes to jump start this trend by bringing in collaboration and creative tools to inspire neighbors to engage deeper within their communities. Join us!