Camden Communities
Solution Summary
Camden Communities - AroundU is a hyperlocal service in Camden believing that “parents are priority”, to foster healthy societies by creating healthy families. Parents are on a constant journey of learning, now more than ever. With every parent being at a different stage and with different experiences, AroundU creates a locality based platform for parents to learn, help and foster the best of parenthood, relying on local resources. Hence, we aim to create a collaborative network of parents that could learn, help and share their experiences with one another, positively embracing diverse personalities and backgrounds in Kentish Town, Camden.
Need for Intervention
As part of the brief received from Camden Council, we were asked to focus on creating collaborative spaces and services for the community. As our focus area, families seemed to be the best target group considering they constitute majority of the locality and are constantly searching for help toward parenthood and family oriented support services. There was a clear lack of locally driven support and that is where AroundU came about.
Project Process & Collaboration
The project involved qualitative research, understanding the demographics of Camden, co-creation workshops with the council and residents. A huge part of the project was also centred around adapting the research and prototype methods to the COVID-19 pandemic that came in mid way.
Team - Aditi Soni, Jihyeon Park, Kenjiro Taniguchi, Tanushka Karad, Yi Tzu Chang | Project Partner - London Borough of Camden
Understanding Family Systems
While looking at the various complementary council services available to the community, we realised how the council specifically defined families as being structures consisting of parents and their children. This observation prompted us to delve deeper into this topic. Consequently, we decided to broaden our focus and redefine our brief to concentrate specifically on the “Parents of Camden.” This shift allows us to better understand and engage with the diverse experiences and needs of parents in that area.
We conducted workshops and research sprints with close to 30 residents, 14 council staff and 7 community led organisations. The research was conducted using methods like in-depth interviews, surveys, focus groups, knowledge sharing and more.
Understanding Parent Dependencies
Our target audience : Stage based parental interactions
Our focused demographic : Mixed sufficiency where people lie between completely dependent on social security to be able to afford private services
Our service sweet spot : Peer to peer support between resident parents
Building Parent Personas
Front Runners
Parents who are primarily responsible for their child and are the representatives for them in every place they go to.
Weekenders
Parents who have to prioritise work on a daily basis. It's usually the bread earners of the family who typically have long working hours.
Explorers
New parents with no experience or family to rely on for guidance on regular decisions regarding the child’s wellbeing and upbringing.
Torch Bearers
These are parents, single or a couple, who enjoy to have and to give company to others. They usually have a good understanding of the community and who can help how.
Using Co-creation with the Council Staff as a Participatory Service Design Methodology
Opportunity
How might we help parents through various stages of new parenthood by harnessing the community and its resources?
Intervention
A digital platform for parents of the Camden community to support each other and collaborate via skills, physical spaces and resources.
Proposed Solution
Our Service Proposition
Around U : A hyperlocal platform for parent connectivity and continuous support
Developing a User Journey for AroundU
Experimenting with Prototyping During the Pandemic
As we entered the prototyping phase during the pandemic, collaboration shifted indoors. We redefined our project's prototype concept and focused on individual features rather than the entire solution. Through platforms like Zoom and Instagram, we tested collaboration and validated skills, forming a lasting community in Camden that extended beyond just parents.
