SHAPE North America 2014 @shape-north-america - Tumblr Blog

Parody Ford ad featuring Pashon

Since Detroit Dirt was such a strong partner at SHAPE, we would be remiss not to share this awesome link to the Ford ad parody of GM's Cadillac commercial. Ford's ad features a very good friend of SHAPE and the Global Shaper Community: Pashon Murray! Enjoy!

WINNING HACKATHON ENTRY: Team 2 - Life Book

Every life is a unique story. Sadly, today as our older population ages, their stories often die with them. In the age of Facebook, face-to-face connection is becoming more and more rare. What if there was a way to link generations and keep history alive in our communities, while cultivating better personal connection? Students, in their senior English classes, could visit seniors in nursing homes to capture their life stories in an essay—a final class project. With support from the Shapers, students would visit the seniors for a minimum of four one hour visits, asking them about their best or most embarrassing life moments, career and history, and life advice for the next generation. The stories would be previewed by teachers after each interview phase to ensure that the writing is on task and of quality. In the end, all of the stories would be compiled, published and printed on Amazon. The senior would get a free copy of their book, and extra copies would available for purchase by family members—funds that would go back into the program to ensure that the next group of students involved can present free books to their respective senior partners. The seniors would be reminded that their lives are an asset to the community as share their valuable story and have it recorded permanently. The young person would develop both their writing and empathy skills, not only gaining school credit, but also capturing an important piece of community history. I've often wished that I had kept a better record of my own grandparents' lives before they passed away. A project like this would have given me the ability to purchase their story, written by a young member of the community. It would have found this snapshot to be incredibly meaningful!

Desensitizing and re-education of human waste

A recent article by the National Geographic entitled: “Is ‘peecycling’ the next wave in sustainable factor” states that human waste can be converted into valuable fertilizer, if people can get past the ‘ick’ factor. What if we got past the psychological hold up of human waste, and beyond the misunderstanding that it smells? According to research by the Rich Earth Institute, each year a person produces nearly enough fertilizer to grow one year’s worth of food. Generally, we flush our waste, using four thousand gallons of water per year, per person. #Igiveacrap is an educational campaign and community-based project which will redefine the way we think about waste, by advocating for a paradigm shift towards seeing the worth of human waste. The idea is to change misconception about human waste: it is valuable not vile. What is crap good for? Absolutely everything! Team 8 is comprised of Shapers from the following hubs: Toronto, Georgetown, Nassau (Bahamas), Seattle (Washington State), San Juan (Puerto Rico) and Washington (District of Columbia). Immediately we agreed thought that the theme of sustainability is a global issue relevant to all of the hubs, in the context of compost management. Following a presentation yesterday about a local barbershop in Detroit, Social Grooming Club, which reuses the hair collected as compost, to plant trees. We thought that this would be a great initiative for Shapers to execute in their respective hubs.

#igiveacrap

What if we all started to give a crap? With so many of us flushing away our human excrement each day, often with potable drinking water, we want to get as many people as possible giving a crap and converting their flush toilet to a compostable toilet. The idea for our group came around drawing inspiration from previous presentations as well as the current work and specialty of the shapers in the group from existing work around compostable toilets, urban farming, and non profits teambuilding. Our team quickly rallied around our slogan of “I Give a Crap”, thinking about the phrase both literally and figuratively. To extend the metaphor further, we can use this as a rallying cry around other issues to combat apathy and stimulate engagement around important issues. The next step had us preparing for our pitch and creating all of the deliverables for the Hackathon.

Notes from the winning team...

Day 2 of our Shape North America conference is focused on teamwork. Today we’ve broken up into teams to engage in a social impact hackathon. The purpose of this hackathon is to create a sustainable project that two hubs can incorporate in their hometowns. TEAM 2 in the house: If you want a winning formula for creating a project out of thin air and the model of teamwork, bring together 5 culturally different 20-30 something year olds from all parts of North America is the most efficient/productive way to create a project – or maybe it was because we had two Canadians on our team? Team 2 rocked the house, but I’m biased. We all contributed to each part of the project, from conception, everyone’s voice was heard. We worked together, we listened to each other, we were courteous and at the end, we came up with a viable, scalable project. We’re excited to present and we know that we will take home that prize! -Paula Gean, Dallas Hub

Team 6 Hackathon Outcomes

It was fun connecting with other hub members to come up and tackle in issue together. We found a common thread that brought us together and help set a foundation for our project. Engagement Impact Exposure Empowerment Ownership We hope to create this foundation among our cities through our project. If YOUR city could speak, what would it say?

Team 6 Hack Reflections...

Talk about starting with a strong foundation! Though we knew the time for this hack would be limited, the team thought it should still take the time to know and set some ground rules before getting into the thick of it. We really felt the difference as we brainstormed and got direction of where we wanted our project to go.

Inter-Hub Project Proposal: SHAPE-Xchange: Share what you know, learn what you don’t.

Launching into “hacking for civic engagement” with almost no defined process proved challenging and rewarding. As Shapers in our group had limited familiarity with one another, we began our process by drawing mental asset maps of one another’s backgrounds based on personal introductions. Then, we started exchanging ideas on post-its. We briefly explained our ideas to get a feel for one another’s passions. We categorized the post-its based on the type of project and their overlap. In response, we noted positive points and negative points of the ideas, before choosing the idea that we naturally grouped around. As we discussed that idea — forming an online platform to link volunteers to nonprofits, or Shapers to other Shapers’ skills — we saw that while this idea had the most overlap with other ideas, our collective passion was missing. Without enthusiasm around the idea, we knew we had to return to the drawing board. Reviewing our other notes, we found a gem: SHAPE-Xchange.

With over 3,500 Shapers worldwide, our community is in a period of tremendous growth with its potential impact rising each day. With such a hyper-localized model of Hubs, however, much of the growth of new Hubs happens with little context and in-person interaction with other Hubs; in-person events like SHAPE North America happen once annually per region, but they're critical to young Hubs and mature Hubs alike. Meanwhile, Shapers all have areas of expertise that are assets not only to their Hub, but to their community, and potentially to other communities, too. SHAPE-Xchange will leverage existing Shapers to accelerate growth of other hubs, projects and shapers through an intentional visit to Hubs in development. Focused worldwide over the course of a weekend or longer, this interaction will be selected based on each Hub’s needs, individual Shapers’ strengths/experience, and funded in partnership with local Hubs’ stakeholders. The input from the visiting Shaper - happening simultaneously in Hubs worldwide - will form a virtual SHAPE experience, creating wider and more numerous interactions and allowing Shapers who can’t attend SHAPEs to understand the context of the global community and thus better activate their Hub for local impact. As Shapers stay with a host from the Hub they visit, the X-change will be not only a transaction of ideas, but a medium of cultural exposure and growth, while also keeping costs low and making sure Shapers of various means can participate. Happening once annually, Hubs with greater experience will pay-it-forward to other Hubs in development, thus turning the idea of retention and engagement on its head: build, share, and pay it forward.

Team 3 Hackathon- Participatory Philanthropy by Nate Olson

Alright. So I’m in Detroit at the North American Global Shapers Conference. During our second day of programming, we were split into teams for a half-day hackathon. On my team were representatives from San Juan, Cleveland, Calgary, Kingston, Boston, Milwaukee & Kansas City. (Totally amazing to collaborate with change agents from so many diverse places btw).

During our collaboration period, our group threw out tons of great ideas specific to our home communities, however, we were looking for something that we could all do together…

We agreed that one major issue we have in our communities is the lack of community engagement from philanthropic organizations when they decide what to fund and for whom. In other words, Philanthropic organizations suck at customer development. I know, I work at a Foundation — and we rarely engage the end user we are trying to serve when we are building programs we want them to use. That’s insanity! Literally. Flipping crazy.

Let’s make better use of the money, time and resources.

The Global Shapers are expanding a system pioneered in Halifax to crowd source community grant making. We are building a bridge between the funders and the community. If all goes well, over fifty cities across North America in 9 months would host a summit to enable people to vote with their feet for the organizations they want to get funded. It’s gonna be HUGE!

#SHAPENA

Team 3 Hackathon!! by Denisse Rodríguez

I´m in Detroit, in the middle of my first hackathon experience and I have no idea how to code. I´m surprised, however, that I´m able to co-design a solution to a problem shared by Milwaukee, Calgary, Boston, Kingston, San Juan, Halifax and Kansas City. What in the world could this shared problem be? And how did we come up with it?

Well, it definitely took some time for us to share the laundry list of local issues that we are passionate about. We discussed brain drain, food security and the fact that there are 1,000 problems and 10,000 NGOs trying to solve these.

But then we brought up an issue that definitely made everyone stop: the diminishing interaction within communities. We discussed how the retiring population could interact with young people and how we could engage the diaspora into collaborating with people in their countries of origin.

How can we re-engage communities and ignite interaction in a way that lasts? What if we provided the space for people to participate in the decisions that they are usually not included in and that actually matter? Like grantmaking? What if grantmaking was transformed to be a democratic process?

Virtual interaction is banned. This is all about people coming out in person, learning about the projects that are being proposed to the grantmaker, enjoying the added benefits of more residents meeting each other and even volunteering to work on solutions themselves.

Another spin to this could be that a community comes out to have dinner together, followed by short presentations by proponents and finally, a participatory voting process. If dinner was $10 each, then we have a proposal crowdfunded by a community. This community will feel that their DNA is in the project and will probably feel compelled to provide continuous support to see it be successful.

We are positive that we´re unto something important that has the potential to go viral across North America.

#SHAPENA

Welcome to Hub Huddle

Good Afternoon Global Shapers! With Hubs sprouting up all around the world, there is an opportunity to support founding curators’ efforts to create a solid foundation in their hometowns. In some of our own experiences, we’ve faced difficulties around sharing information and the strong points each hub exhibits as well as some of the issues or barriers different Hubs have gone or might be going through at the moment. Even though the current Global Shaper platform has a space for this, there’s a problem between Shapers not sharing the information at all and also accessing the information that actually is there in an easy manner. How do we replicate the value of Shape on a continuous, but remote, basis?

Hub Huddles implements a mentor model pairing new, fresh Hub’s with seasoned Hub’s that will help guide them through the process from recruiting to monitoring the metrics during and after a project has been executed. Hub Huddles will also connect Shapers to relevant connections they may need for projects or research.

Each Hub will have to submit their top three areas of expertise to Manuel Watcher ([email protected]) by Friday, July 11th at 5pm EST. We also encourage the media managers to upload any documents and information they would consider helpful by the same date. We’ll compile the information and share when the updates have been made.

Let's Huddle!

Hub Huddle ...in the works!

Who’s the audience? Then what? How do we make sure we don’t replicate our efforts? Let’s not reinvent the wheel.

Live from proving ground at TechTown – we are in the process of developing a new initiative for increased hub collaboration and efficiency. Ensuring Global Shapers are no longer pursuing solutions in search of a problem, but instead leveraging the power of the Shaper community to become collaborative change agents, here to strengthen channels and solutions that have been tried and tested.

This initiative will require you to identify you and your cities’ expertise so that we can match you with a sister hub.

Let’s huddle!

Team 1 Reflection

The experience of this hack-a-thon has been a super engaging culminating project for the Shape North America experience.

It has been especially interesting to connect and collaborate with members of other hubs, building and iterating ideas for useful projects to our communities. One challenge we had was narrowing down all of the ideas into something that is big and bold and feasible. The time limit has forced us to be very productive, vastly accelerating the decision making processes that are sometimes frustrating in our home hub structures.

One element which may be useful for future Shape hack-a-thons would be to focus the energy on a specific theme or challenge which is relevant to our communities.

Shape Your City – a game for creating community

How do we build community in cities that are struggling? How do we celebrate and elevate our cities? Can we encourage citizens to engage with each other, discover their urban environments and have a really good time while doing so?

We can create culture, implement odd and fun interventions, but many of us need a place to start.

Shape Your City is an open ended game which encourages collisions and conversations to open the doors to creativity, culture and connection in an urban environment.

Shape North America’s #1 Team is developing a vehicle for catalysing community for collective change – a gateway for creative engagement on behalf of young people. Stay tuned for our pitch and follow the game via our live twitter feed below

#shapeyourcity Tweets

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#ShapeNA urbanism shapeyourcity

Im So Turned Off

After two straight days of learning about building sustainable cities, we were ready to put our newfound knowledge to good use. We did some serious deliberating until finally a light went off, literally, at Team 7's Hackathon meeting. The issue of energy conservation in cities is an problem that's increasing with our use of electronic equipment. More specifically, computers and cell phones are eating away at the percent of energy consumed by a city. We believe the amount of energy consumed by these devices can easily be corrected/adjusted through a simple and small change in citizen behavior. Stay tuned for our proposal.

A Challenge for those Attending SHAPE North America…

ROBERT MARSH | CALGARY HUB

In just four short days, Shapers from across our continent will descend on Detroit for a very unique opportunity to explore, discuss and SHAPE. I’m guessing many of us have attended a few conferences before, and we can appreciate that a ‘conference experience’ can vary greatly depending on the attendees, schedule, and subject matter. Sometimes the attendees aren’t all that engaged, sometimes the schedule isn’t very dynamic, and sometimes the subject matter just isn’t that interesting. I have watched the Detroit team bring together an incredible program that will feature thought-provoking discussion and debate on community building, hub collaboration, social entrepreneurship, social impact design, global sustainability, a hackathon, and a whole lot more. Needless to say, we won’t have a problem with our schedule or subject matter – both will be exceptional! There is only one variable that I would ask you to consider as we jump in a train, plane or automobile next Wednesday…that is: what attitude are you bringing to SHAPE? Many of us are breaking away from work or other very demanding commitments (we are Global Shapers after all). We will surely have challenges with our engagement as we try to disconnect from our day-to-day routine. That’s where my challenge comes from. I’m challenging all SHAPE attendees to bring your A-game to SHAPE North America. I’m challenging you to bring an open mind, a curiosity to learn, a pursuit of inspiration, a positive attitude, and a willingness to give your 110%. Let’s not waste the chance to make the most of an opportunity to collaborate with some of this continent’s most talented young leaders. I have no fear that this event holds the potential to be something great. That said, we hold the ‘conference experience’ in our hands. Let’s bring our A-game.

When We Give Home Adventures a Chance | By Erica Viegas

A few years ago, I took off on my own to travel Southeast Asia for a few months. I really just wanted to get away from it all—taking great delight in putting on a bathing suit, grabbing a great book and beach towel, and enjoying some solitude in the sunshine. This past weekend, while perusing a friend’s Instagram feed, photos from Bali made me green with envy. I sat in bed, scrolling through the beach shots with a sense of longing to be back in that type of exotic space. True, it was a sunny 25 degrees outside (77 for my American friends ;) in my home city of Edmonton, and the sky was clear blue. True, I had been waiting with eager anticipation through a snowy winter season for a warm day like this one. And yet, I thought with a grumpy humph: “my city is certainly no sunny Indonesian paradise.” And then I realized—for all the beach trips I had taken alone in the last few years, I always waited until I was far from home to experience serenity. If all I really wanted was sunshine, water, and a book, couldn’t I take advantage of the gorgeous day and find some respite at home? So, I googled lakes near Edmonton. And you know what? To my surprise, there were tons of them! Some as little as half an hour away! As someone who prides herself in knowing a lot about my community, I was shaken. Sure, I knew that some of these places existed, but for some reason, I was much more likely to longingly google a flight to Hawaii than to get out there and explore a new, albeit less celebrated, local place. So I chose a little lake, about a 40 minute drive from my apartment. I packed my beach bag and decided to go on an adventure. The place was quaint and quiet, and as I lay out my towel, I was so glad I took a chance on it. I spent the afternoon in the sunshine, enjoying the water and the calmness, much like I did on fancier beach trips. It might not have been exactly the same, but I will certainly be pursuing these “mini-vacations” more often from now on. The day was easy on my wallet, took up little commitment, and still left me feeling amazing. In trying to make our cities more attractive and vibrant, I think a big key is acknowledging the opportunities that already exist and celebrating them. We all longingly seek adventure. We get complacent with where we live and assume that we've done all there is to do. How, then, do we encourage each other to start looking in our own backyards and start noticing all the beauty that we DO have or haven’t yet experienced? How do we encourage our peers to share their new local experiences? To help this exploration along, our Edmonton Global Shapers Hub is in the process of creating a "Places and Spaces" website where people can share our city's best kept secrets, comment on undiscovered locations, and get out to explore the green grass on our side of the fence. I’m not saying I’ll never long for more exotic destinations, but I think that I might pick a different lake to try out next weekend. I might even bring along a friend who has never thought to give home adventures a chance…

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