Re-envisioning Community Engagement
Profile
Industry: Non-profit Parkinson's support community
Customer in focus: Parkinson's sufferers, carers and healthcare providers
Change topic: Community engagement
Engagement: 3 changeUp|GLOBAL partners over the course of ~8 weeks and 9 90-minute virtual sessions
Location: Virtual engaging U.K. based participants
Challenge
Oxford Parkinson's is a highly respected organization lead by an exceptionally committed organizing group, most of whom have Parkinson's. They observed that they were not reaching the newly diagnosed, in particular those in the less privileged demographics. The result was that those in need of their resources, services and, perhaps most importantly, connection to their own community, were not. This was further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic which only served to isolate those most in need.
Oxford Parkinson's wanted to find a way to reach this audience - sufferers and others in need of their deep well of services and community. They hoped they'd be seen as a safe, empathetic and trusted partner. The challenge:
- Limited insight as to why existing efforts to reach this audience were failing
- An exhausted, volunteer organizing board already stretched thin keeping day-to-day operations running
- Oh, and then there was the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.
Approach
Working with the Oxford Parkinson's organizing board, and applying our Re:Solve™ Framework, changeUp|GLOBAL started by getting a virtual focus on the problem:
- Brought the organizing board together to dig into their current situation and understand the challenges from their perspective
- Prepared and organized the board to conduct interviews with people with Parkinson's, their carers, physicians and other health care providers. Together, evaluated results to discover patterns and motivations.
- Defined a problem area to focus on, generated solution ideas and narrowed to 6 viable and related concepts.
- Selected 2 concepts to start with. Prototyped and tested these in the field and with the Parkinson's community, then put these concepts into action.
Created a roadmap incorporating all 6 solution concepts and a path to implementation.
Deliverables
Applying the Re:Solve™ Framework virtually delivered – actionable insights into underlying challenges, 6 concepts for a new engagement model, 2 prototyped, tested and implemented solutions, and a roadmap for the rest ... all done virtually over 9 90-minute sessions while in COVID lockdown.
"We have been hugely impressed with how effectively you've bought into our concern and understood our problem space ... it's been just amazing."
Parkinson's Oxford Board member
Impact
Discovery and Insight: This effort coalesced a spectrum of challenges across each aspect of the Parkinson's community - health care providers, carers, family members, the national organization and other supporting entities, as well as people with Parkinson's.
Service Innovation: The generation of 165 ideas were turned into 6 full solution concepts, two of which were prototyped, tested and are being implemented.
Process Evolution: Based on their experience in this process, the organization decided to "embed the Design Thinking way of working in everything we do".
Team Enthusiasm and Engagement: Inspired this group to look at their challenge and solve it in a new way. The direct interaction with other sufferers, carers and physicians energized this group and made the entire experience joyful.
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