Since the teams had last all met together there had been a change of government, so Programme Director Andrea Siodmok kicked off the day with a context setting presentation about the policy context of Dott Cornwall, and outlined how it could be seen as one of the earliest demonstrations of Big Society thinking.
David Cameron has described 'building the Big Society' as giving 'citizens, communities and local government the power and information they need to come together, solve the problems they face and build the Britain they want.'
'citizens, communities and local government the power and information they need to come together, solve the problems they face and build the Britain they want.'
The ten Dott Cornwall projects draw on the skills and expertise of professional designers, and bring those designers together with communities, to work together and follow a creative, collaborative design process. The way that these projects draw on the expertise that is inherent within communities, Andrea added, is more like acupuncture – in its ability to tap into energy points – than the traditionally more 'orthopaedic' methods for embedding change in public sector services.
More than simply the on-the-ground or local delivery of national policy, Dott Cornwall works in a way that is both top-down and bottom-up. It's informed by national policy, such as the Big Society, but it also feeds into it by demonstrating the effectiveness of particular design-led approaches. It takes national issues and pilots solutions to them at a local level, involving local people not only in defining the challenges they face but also by engaging them throughout the creative process.
The rest of the day was devoted to exploring exactly how this is done. After each of the project teams had presented their projects PechaKucha style – with the audience very forgiving of those who didn't quite manage to stick to the time limit – all the participants got stuck into a working lunch mapping the design journey of each project.
The afternoon saw more of this hands-on activity, with teams capturing their project methods and sharing with each other their most and least successful approaches and techniques. This was a fascinating insight into the day-to-day realities, joys and frustrations of a Dott project, with diverse methods being used to fulfil a wide range of design and innovation activities:
Engaging communities
From YouTube films to fun at the fair, Community Reporters to kids' design workshops, the teams shared their methods for gathering first hand opinions and experiences from communities and stakeholders.
Raising awareness
A Christmas Tree in Redruth town centre for the first time in years and a dinner party in two venues 300 miles apart were just two of the innovative methods used by teams to make communities and groups aware of their projects.
Mapping and visualising
Teams shared their ideas for mapping service provision across local areas, constructing service blueprints and using storyboards to gain consensus.
Designing together
A giant paper fruit machine, a deck of cards describing different industries and a pile of buckets, pipes and levers were among the resources drawn on, and drawn up, by the design teams in order to help the process of co-design. They also learned that if you are going to design a building using cake you have to be pretty quick to photograph it before it gets eaten...
Testing and refining
These methods were all about making prototypes and getting feedback, whether this meant watching children destroying pieces of playground equipment or piloting a service with a hairdresser and a cafe owner.
After a final session debating design education, the legacy of Dott Cornwall and the lessons learned so far, the teams and other participants headed out into the evening for a barbecue.
You can read more about the design methods used in Dott Cornwall here.
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