Strategies for a Graceful Dismount

Weekly Objectives and Achievements

Moment of Significance

During the tutorial session on Nov.1, we as a group created a Moments of Significant Change graph. This graph allowed us to define and recapture some significant moments occurred during the progress of our project.

What ?
Since we last talked, our group has taken the feedback from our project proposal review with Anne, Rani (our community partners) as well as Ali and moved forward with clarity to the next stage; populating the excel spreadsheet/contacting community assets. The Food Asset Map will be directly based on the data we add to the excel spreadsheet. As we sit here working to complete the excel spreadsheet, we debrief about what the process has been like. The moment of significance for us collectively has been looking beyond what initially seemed like a slim picking of resources, to appreciating the difference that even one of these workshops could make for one person, or one family.

So What ?
As we talk as a group, we thought it would be neat get everyone’s perspectives on the project so far to see how our experiences, goals, or motivations differed from one another, and how they’re the same:
Vincy: “It seems like a simple task, but it needs to be done well. Even though the land size in richmond is comparable to Vancouver, the amount of resources are not comparable – there are much less in Richmond. ”
Jiahe: “ Collecting information has even been a challenge for me, so I Imagine that it’s harder for the general public to access and find the meaning in this information. This has re-emphasized the importance of why we are doing this project.”
Rachelyn: “ I think it’s so cool that there’s workshops reaching out to specific minority populations, like the one for immigrant moms! I imagine that could be a really helpful way for them to get to know the community and make new friends, and I’m excited at the potential for more people to have access to these resources.”
Liyou: “It’s a really proud thing that I am personally involved in a growing program that is going to help the community with their members to improve their quality of life and solve food insecurity problems, even to a small degree. Thus, with such responsibilities, I am more cautious and considerate when collecting information and preparing the spreadsheet.”
Rose: “As we are collecting the data, I gained a much deeper understanding of the meaning and the significance for doing this project. The kitchen programs and food workshops in Richmond are very scattered and diverse. If not with an inclusive list (like the list we generated), it will cost a lot of effort for general public to find the resources and the programs that they needed. Take myself for an example, I have been living in Richmond for more than seven years, but I only knew about two to three programs on the list we have before this project.”
Ellen: “I gained so much knowledge regarding how Richmond Public Health helps the general public in means including workshops, kitchen programs, food festivals and events. The gap in my knowledge on how professionals interact with community members to improve their health status has been filled. Now I am actively involved in not only this program, but also helping out cooking events in Richmond, of which I did not know that they existed before this course. ”

Now What ?
If we were to see and underlying theme in all our thoughts as a group, we think that it would be new found motivation to see the programs that are available being used and accessed. The more successful and used the existent programs and facilities are, the more funding, impetus and demand there will be for more of these resources to be introduced!   As we prepare to to submit the first version of our excel spreadsheet on Nov. 1st, it’s our last chance to reach into the crevices of our community and pull out all the possible kitchen and food programs that could be of help to all kinds of people in Richmond.

Strategies for the Graceful Dismount
Our project is processing successfully and reaches it half-point, so it’s time to think about our group strategies for a graceful dismount which includes collecting evaluations for Richmond Food Asset Map via interviews, write a group report & give a presentation about our project and referring this CBEL project in our personal AER papers.

First of all, we will conduct a phone meeting with Anne and Rani, our community contacts, to confirm the progress of our project, as well as to receive feedback on the excel sheet we will submit to them. After they validate the excel document, they will work on transferring all the information from the excel document to the Google map, to generate a prototype to be used during trial runs. During the phone call meeting, Anne and Rani will also give us instructions on when and how to conduct interviews, as well as the contact information of  the VCH professionals they have selected for us to interview.

Secondly, we will separate into groups of two and each group will interview two to three VCH professionals. Before the evaluation process starts, we will act as facilitators to introduce the map to interviewees and give them instructions on how to obtain information from the map. Then, we will let them explore the map by themselves. At the end, they will be asked to fill out an evaluation form. After all evaluation sessions are completed,we will compile and analyze all the data collected from evaluation forms and develop a report focused on the user experience and acceptability of the trial map, as well as improvements suggested by trial users. (We will summarize our project’s objectives & process, analyze its data & method, consider its significance and addressing further food system issues that are related with lfs 350 course content with respectful language in a report. This report will be due on Dec 03rd and returned to our community partner and used as a resources for future course learners. We will also create an infographic and make presentations on Nov 29th to introduce our project and answer questions from our audiences-community partners, faculty members, and the general public.  )

Thirdly, we will also refers to  findings and analysis from this community based experiential learning project to discuss personal  perspectives on course materials in an AER paper. We should be respectful while communicating with community partners and conscientious while handling specific works. We should also clearly distribute works to ensure that every group member is contributing and learning from this project experience. Lastly, we hope our project, Richmond food asset map can successfully meet its objectives to improve food justice and food security in the city of Richmond.