Healthy & Safe Cities: Educating Hamilton
Safe Consumption Awareness
Executive Summary
Group Members
Healthy and Safe Cities Team H3
Mission Statement
CHANGE "Our team is passionate about making a meaningful impact in our community. We are comprised of a multi-disciplinary team that has a common vision to improve health and wellbeing options within Hamilton. Our goal is to learn, embrace new perspectives, and drive innovative solutions."
Description
CHANGE Nearly 64% of Canadians are inactive during the winter months, which is set to increase due to limitations during the pandemic (Merchant et al, 2007). With 17% of hamiltonians being over 65 years old, this large portion of the Hamilton community is at a higher risk for serious COVID-19 complications and age-related disabilities (City of Hamilton, 2019). For many seniors, the safest and only option is staying at home, and in-person recreational programs are no longer available to keep those over 65 active. Our solution includes a biweekly exercise subscription package delivered to the doors of older adults who are stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes optional equipment available for delivery, an infographic outlining exercises, and video access with audio description. This will allow seniors to keep active while maintaining their sense of comfort, independence, and safety at home with a solution that is easily customized to fit their income and fitness levels.
Our How Might We Question
How might we design an ideal safe consumption site that can support users of inhaled drugs as well as other methods of consumption?
Human Centred Design
Our Research Findings
SDG Alignment
The Sustainable Development Goals, also known as the SDG’s, are a call for action for all countries to work together in a global partnership. There are 17 goals, two of which our team has selected for our project.
SDG: 10- Reduced Inequalities
Target: 10.2 - By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status
Rationale: Our project attempts to tackle this by coming up with a solution leading to the creation of a safe consumption site which can support users of inhaled drugs, along with other methods of consumption. Doing so, we are actively working towards target 10.2, working towards the inclusion of all.
SDG: 3 - Good Health and Well-Being
Targets: 3.5 - Strengthen the prevention and treatment of substance abuse, including narcotic drug abuse and harmful use of alcohol
Rationale: Sustainable Development Goal three works to ensure the health and well-being of people of all ages and is relevant to our “how might we” question. Target 3.5 indicates that the prevention and treatment of substance abuse will lead to a healthier community. By creating an inclusive space that is accessible to all drug users and is able to provide assistance and resources to promote their well-being, we are contributing to the development of a flourishing community.
Case Studies and Finding
Revised Questions After Speaking to the Community
How our conversations with community members Claire Bodkin, and Claire Flanders have changed our research questions! Through our conversations with them we have to understand that the root of our HMW question lies in the lack of education on safe consumption sites, and prevalence of stigmas surrounding them in our general society.
Our Timeline - CHANGE
Original How Might We Question
How might we create inclusive (age, ability, etc.) winter recreational fitness
opportunities at a time of physical and social distancing?
Brainstorming
This original question was too broad, and we wanted to decide what demographic .... Explain why and how you decided to narrow down your question
Our Revised How Might We Question
How might we make it safe and feasible for older adults to stay active this winter with COVID-19 restrictions in place?
First Community Event Feedback + Next Steps
How do we make this feasible....
Final Community Event Feedback
How do we edit this for our final showcase?
Measuring Success
How will you and your team measure the success of your solution should it be implemented?
- Implementation of a second safe consumption site in Hamilton
- Attendance at workshops
- QR code scans / website visits
- Goal reaches for emails sent to city council
Our Solution Ideas
Community workshop advertisement poster for McMaster University and Mohawk College
Promotional poster for Hamilton community to garner interest
Bus banner poster ideation, to provide community members with access to educational resources and actionable items.
Example of informational webpages that will be presented upon scan of QR codes on other posters.
Equitable and Inclusive Considerations
Considerations made about our solution to make it more equitable and inclusive while exploring the 4 lenses of accessibility; Physical, Communicative, Financial, and Digital.
Project Viability
Final Solution
Feel free to use this section however you would like to represent your final solution! Below are some examples of how you can do it. Use a poster, infographic, prototype, video or anything you deem as an apporpriate representation of your final solution.
Our initial solution prototype.
Our final prototype of what the box could include!
- Our solution is a biweekly exercise subscription package ...
Our Pitch to Stakeholders
Team H4
Our Experience with MacChangers
Use this section to talk about what you learned, your favorite parts, and what you found valuable from the experience! Tell stakeholders why this was so valuable to you and how you hope your solution can help.
