Building Your MyImpact Project: Designing a Community Project

0:03 has anyone ever told you don’t be a part of the problem be a part of the solution that’s good advice but in today’s polarized Society how can you be sure that you’re helping solve a problem instead of just making it worse sometimes the first step is to look at the parts of the world closest to you where you can see problems up close and personal try making a list of the communities

0:23 that you’re part of your town your school what about a sports team or a house of worship we’re all part of a network of interlocking communities all with their own individual struggles and a lot of the time people aren’t that divided when it comes to local problems who doesn’t want a new street light on a dark corner so how do you find a local problem to

0:44 solve well you can start by thinking about those communities you listed and asking what problems they have every Community has little things that go wrong so you shouldn’t have trouble finding a few now look at your list of problems which of them are you most passionate about is there one that you’d enjoy working on what about one that

1:05 you’re so passionate about that you could work on it for hours if you can find that problem you may have found your project next let’s look at your problem why is it a problem at all how can you be a part of the solution to find some answers let’s use a tool called the five wise analysis otherwise known as a fishbone diagram to use this

1:25 tool you have to ask why a problem happens then ask why again then ask a third and fourth and fifth time here’s what we mean in our online lessons we use this tool to examine Wyatt Town Festival had poor attendance why did this happen the first time we asked why we think of the big categories in this case four

1:46 potential sources of poor attendance were price people processes and environment let’s drill down on price if we ask why prices were too high we might discover that this was the first year that the festival charged an entrance fee for children so ask why again why were children charged this year and not last

2:07 the answer might be that the festival needed to cover increased operating costs so why did their costs go up maybe it was because the equipment rental service used by the festival raised their prices now we’ve found something specific targeting the decrease in attendance is a big task but what if you held a bake sale to offset the equipment costs or

2:28 what if you wrote a letter to the equipment company asking for a donation maybe those sorts of actions could result in decreased ticket costs and more attendance can you apply the five wise method to your own problem finding the answers might take some research but once you do you might find something specific to take action on and

2:48 if you take action you could make real change