Building on our visit to the Dunbar neighborhood last week, our task was to accumulate research for a topic relating back to community resilience and compile our findings into a booklet. The goal was to show off how climate action planning, environmental health, critical infrastructure, and social resilience can strengthen and develop community resilience on a national, local, and neighborhood level.

This week, we met at Central Christian Church to speak with Jay Jones from More2 about resilience hubs. More2 is an Environmental Action Agency, which helps to produce resilience hubs and action centers here in Kansas City, such as Central Christian Church. During our visit we talked about environmental inequities and opportunities within KCMO.

Our groups came together and presented our research from the first two weeks of studio. Alongside our research paper, we were tasked with making four personas for the users of our projects. These personas represent the neighborhood residents, allowing us to zero in on user needs and pain points to create design decisions to fill the needs of the community! The key challenges we identified include addressing extreme weather and drought, strengthening connections between the community and social programs, improving access to emergency services, and building the infrastructure needed for the community to thrive independently. These focus areas will serve as the foundation for exploring opportunities to enhance resilience and strengthen the Dunbar neighborhood.

Research Presentations