COMMUNITY PROJECT OPPORTUNITIES ASSESSMENT 2018

A collaboration between Nido de Vida and University of Michigan’s Center for Socially Engaged Design

Priorities filtering activity conducted by UofM interns with Nido de Vida members.

Priorities filtering activity conducted by UofM interns with Nido de Vida members.

Priority Assessment final presentation with community members.

Priority Assessment final presentation with community members.

In 2018, Nido de Vida began a partnership with the University of Michigan’s Center for Socially Engaged Design (C-SED). The partnership meant that we would have the support of a group of interns who would conduct field work focused on assessing community needs and priorities.

We were excited to be able to facilitate a project that would provide community baseline data, and serve to identify future community-based work.

Information on nine topics was gathered in the form of interviews. 35 families total were interviewed, and topics explored included animals, crops, water, transportation, health and safety, community, electricity, education, and construction. 

After collecting, cleaning, and assessing the data, three areas of highest community priority were identified as:

  1. Increased access to water, especially in the dry season.

  2. Increased community unity, mostly mentioned as a community owned physical space for gatherings and recreational areas for children.

  3. Better transportation options, and maintenance of the one road in and out of the community. 

Since 2018, we have used this report, and the three priorities mentioned above to help guide our community-focused work, including projects conducted in 2019.

Thank you Cameron Beversluis, Emily Brady, Erin Maher, and Raghav Muralidharan for setting such a high bar. Your contribution helped give us direction, and will be used as a tool to drive the design of many future community projects.