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Therefore, the team decided to develop a project called Sun Devils Together which addresses the needs of ASUs students facing homelessness and overall aims to help increase the accessibility of available resources through reducing the silo effect that occurs due to lack of communication between different departments and increases faculty, staff, and student awareness regarding the issue. In order to achieve this, the team has collaborated with the Assistant Dean of Students to produce a training module for ASU faculty, professional staff, and students. The team is contributing information to the creation of a new website that will have all the resources available to students in one place. In addition, the team will create a coded pamphlet with a map of resources that will be given out to different departments around campus that students may potentially reach out to for help while informing those departments regarding the existence of other departments that work towards the same cause.
For the community engagement piece of the project, existing community engagement protocols and frameworks were compared. The most effective strategies were then selected and combined into a single adaptive framework. Assets Based Community Development, the Sustainable Neighborhood for Happiness Index, and the six types of capital are used as the foundational structure of the Community System Map. A Community Food System map was then organized using a “hub” approach, and the Residential Edible Landscaping map was organized based off of field experience. The nested systems illustrate just how complex the community food system really is. The outcome of the project is the first iteration of an adaptive tool that can be used by for-profit or non-profit organizations to co-create and interdependently manage local community food systems.
Artists play a seminal role in advancing humanity through place-based creative initiatives that change not only the aesthetics of place, but also the aesthetics of belonging. Creative placemaking initiatives should provide authentic opportunities for community members to express their relationship with their physical and social environment. Current models of creative placemaking are tethered to the built environment and urban revitalization. An expanded model of creative placemaking is needed to address the complexities of today’s urban neighborhoods, a new model that develops places of belonging for the collective good; measures empowerment, cultural stewardship and community attachment as indicators of success; and is committed to addressing the root causes of social inequity through artist-led civic engagement activities. Artists develop arts-based initiatives that fully engage and empower a community’s capacity to self-express their distinct cultural identity through place. Artists equipped with nimble entrepreneurial skills who are guided by a spirit of authentic collaboration can be significant change agents in their communities. Established and emerging creative practitioners will benefit from identifying cross-sector collaboration that expands the role of artistic life into civic life.