Red Cross + Parsons

Interesting RC tweet

Kelly_Nichols — Wed, 12 May 2010 04:52:54 +0000

Apropos of “Design and Technology”, I found this tweet on the NY Red Cross twitter page.

Shirts are here!

Chris_Choi — Wed, 12 May 2010 02:05:12 +0000

We just got the shipment in today!

http://redcrossyourtees.blogspot.com/2010/05/shirts-are-here_11.html

Nadiah’s Updated Abstract: A Designed Campaign for EHL

Nadiah — Tue, 11 May 2010 15:09:46 +0000

The International Humanitarian Law (IHL) is mandated for dissemination by participating Red Cross chapters globally. An educational treatment of this is explored in the form of Exploring Humanitarian Law (EHL).

These principles are not dissimilar to the principles of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Curriculum; encouraging the role of student as a global citizen. However, this linkage has not been explored in depth.

Due to my personal experience being educated in the IB Curriculum, and having collaborated with the EHL, I examined and illustrated the links that exists between the two worlds.

My focus is a start-off (campaign) in the form of a presentation that does the following:

illustrating the strong links between the EHL and IB Curriculum,
through the visual language of sharedness,
and messages that encourage the fostering of these ideals through holistic education.

By opening up to EHL’s audiences in the design form, we can better understand the meaning of adapation that EHL proudly offers.

The audience for this particular presentation would ideally be IB Coordinators, and/or educators. The distribution of this presentation may continue via email, available for print online (suitable in black & white or color), and also in the form of a slideshow. The structure of this presentation is also flexible to the needs of EHL to other audiences, that in future, will encompass all curricula.

Roxanne’s Abstract

Haeun_Kim — Tue, 11 May 2010 05:05:21 +0000

Red Cross is the organization that responds to their regional safety. Also, they help and relief people with disasters. Especially, after I went to Ride-Along-Shift, I realized the seriousness of the home fires. Furthermore, Brooklyn is the most fire region in America. One of the main reasons is children’s playing. Nevertheless, Red Cross doesn’t have educational information for kids about the danger of fire. So, by creating an animated PSA, educate children about awareness that do not play with matches. It will help children to get understanding of matches’ danger, and change their cognition.

JEFF HSIEH ABSTRACT

Jeff_Hsieh — Tue, 11 May 2010 04:03:08 +0000

The Red Cross association is one the best first responder on disaster. Their first

respond vehicles are one the most important tool in there. The vehicles are usually

pack up with food, blanket, and clothes. Those stuff are usually store in boxes and

place in the trunk . The New York branch is the one who owns most of respond

vehicle. How ever the lack of organization can cause them a lot problem.An

example can be the heavy weight of the rubbermaid. The heavy weight lifting is not

suitable for every age. So,I am proposing a concept of re-designing the boxes. Tow

of he goals for the box are portability and easy organizing. The users are the

responders from all ages. This boxes are providing easy organization with color

coating at the door, which tells the user what equipments are in the box. This box

can increase the rate of organizing and always have their tools ready to go.

Red Ready

Rhiannon_Fox — Tue, 11 May 2010 03:03:43 +0000

The Red Cross has excellent emergency preparedness programs and materials for adults. The steps for preparing homes and families for emergency situations are laid out concisely. However, the New York branch of the Red Cross lacks emergency preparedness programs geared specifically towards kids in elementary. Families could benefit enormously from having all family members mentally prepared for any time of emergency situation. Therefore, I propose a simple, easily distributed and interactive program of activities and games for children ages 6 – 9 that can be implemented in the school setting. The game would be comprised only of digital instructions for the instructor (teacher, counselor, etc.). This program is inspired by “Raid Cross,” an interactive game that teaches kids about humanitarian issues in areas of conflict. The game would provide kids with a fun, memorable way to learn about emergency preparedness, help to bring that awareness back to the home, and create another outlet for the Red Cross to be seen in the public eye. It also serves the purpose of making kids familiar with the Red Cross at a younger age, increasing the possibility of their future involvement in Red Cross programs and volunteer opportunities.

Red Cross Game logo

You Go Girl: Make It, Plan It, Share It Go Gear!

Maya_Sariahmed — Tue, 11 May 2010 02:00:21 +0000

I am interested in women’s issues as they relate to disaster management within the Red Cross. Gender mainstreaming efforts in disaster planning and preparedness acknowledges the differential aspects of gender and how it effects a community’s response to disaster. Women are proven to assess risk differently than men, act more collectively, and are more concerned about solidarity. If we consider a woman to be the predominant caregiver and central foundation of her family, how is that role passed down to other generations? I want to create printed, personal keepsakes that draw on the solidarity that is built between mothers, daughters, grandmothers, and sisters. Girls will be given small, illustrated guidebooks that encourage the documentation of all of their own personal safety measures taught to them by the women in their home. The booklet will be part instructional and part open-ended, with empty pages for personalized content. Girls will have a book filled with space to record everything from drawings of their family’s house plan, to tried and true chicken soup recipes to face the disastrous flu. The idea is to draw from personal knowledge learned from one’s own intimate family experiences and give a platform for the informal, anecdotal bits of comfort we gather from one another when facing even the smallest of disasters. The document created will allow for that intimate knowledge to be recorded and passed on. I want to change the experience of a disaster into one that brings in familiarity and personal empowerment for all young women.

Exploring Humanitarianism Through a Red Cross Camp Management Game- Abstract

George_Bixby — Mon, 10 May 2010 18:46:18 +0000

Currently, the Red Cross promotes the EHL (Exploring Humanitarian Law) toolkit as their primary educational material. This modular curriculum “offers educators primary source materials and strategies that reinforce and enrich existing curricula and educational programs.”

The Red Cross has expressed that they would like this curriculum to be adopted by more teachers than is currently, so that it can have an even greater impact. Our project seeks to address this issue by creating a game that responds to this problem in three ways.

Firstly, we noticed that while the EHL toolkit offers numerous suggestions for activities that teachers may incorporate into their curriculum, they are generally broad recommendations rather than fully realized activities. In our research, many teachers responded that one of the key considerations in adopting new curriculum is the time it would add to their lesson planning. Our solution responds to this issue by offering a fully realized game, which can be played by students with little to no need for extra planning or explanation by a teacher, making it easy to implement.

Secondly, by creating the framework for a game that can be easily adaptable (by either designers, teachers or students) for various current event or historical situations, our project seeks to offer a solution that, like the toolkit, is both relevant and easy to incorporate into various lesson plans.

Lastly, while originally inspired by module 5B of the EHL toolkit, an activity centered on planning a camp in a conflict situation, our game suggests the possibility of broadening the scope of the activity to include both conflict and natural disaster situations, in an effort to make it even more universal.

Click here to download entire Project Profile

Addressing Institutional Memory at the Red Cross Through Social Media – Abstract

Kelly_Nichols — Mon, 10 May 2010 15:10:46 +0000

All organizations face issues of retaining and managing the collective knowledge and experience that they produce. With 96% of its labor force working on a volunteer basis, these challenges are particularly critical for the American Red Cross in Greater New York. Research into the ways in which documents such as training manuals are authored and circulated through the chapter shows a great deal of “institutional memory loss”.

This project is an initial exploration into how existing social media technologies can be used to help increase the retention and distribution of organizational knowledge within the ARC/GNY. A functional, customized prototype of a “wiki” is used to illustrate the various ways in which collaborative authorship, versioned document development, and centralized depositories can benefit the fluid and diverse needs of even the largest of humanitarian organizations.

The Red Cross in Motion, by CarolineR

caroline — Sun, 09 May 2010 21:57:22 +0000

Abstract

This project is about enhancing a better understanding of the Red Cross’s many domains through visual animation.

This project aims to explore dynamic ways to explain visually how the different levels and areas of work of the Red Cross are interconnected, and, together, form one big organization.

This animation piece reveal brief definitions of the domains; going from the top level with the IFRC to the many local chapters and offices that also supports the organization, in a diagram style.

Another goal is to motivate and inspire future similar work that helps framing existing materials such as videos, and other media pieces that the RC owns.