Anneli Bowie and Fatima Cassim, Information Design lecturers, managed and provided tuition for the project. In addition, in order to prepare students to engage with the specific community, Dr Reineth Prinsloo (Department of Social Work and Criminology) and Ms Gernia van Niekerk (Community Engagement) facilitated initial orientation sessions. Students also visited the correctional facility on an orientation visit that assisted in developing their understanding of the intentions, systems and procedures of the Department of Correctional Services. Thereafter, students were divided into smaller groups and visited the various sections at Baviaanspoort (Maximum, Medium and Juvenile) on three occasions. Students interacted directly with the offenders in focus group settings and interviewed wardens and social workers to help them identify relevant needs and challenges.
Through their research process, students identified needs related to issues in health care, education, and skills development, amongst others. Direct interaction with the intended users helped students to develop the necessary insight to conceptualise innovative design solutions that could improve systems or processes within the facilities. Focus groups towards the end of the project also provided students with the opportunity to test prototypes of their ideas. This proved to be a very valuable exercise as part of the design research process and products that are more successful resulted from the immediate input and feedback received from both inmates and wardens.
Student reflections written after project completion indicated that students underwent an overwhelmingly positive change in attitude towards the offender community. Students reflected on how their initial apprehensions were transformed into a real sense of empathy by the end of the project. Many students expressed an interest to become more actively involved in development programs for offenders in future.
One student’s reflection, indicating growth in terms of social responsibility, read as follows:
“In doing this prison project, I valued the fact that it taught me as a person, as well as a designer, to look beyond myself and realise that a designer has such an amazing opportunity to stretch beyond oneself, bring about positive change, provide a sense of human-dignity and restore damage within areas of need.”
Representatives from the three sections at the Baviaanspoort Correctional Facility attended final student presentations and were highly impressed with students’ innovative ideas. Overall, this community engagement project was well received, and we hope that some of the student projects may be further developed and employed. We believe this project has inspired students to become socially responsible design citizens who can make real contributions in society through strategic design.
The marketing section of the Faculty of Humanities sponsored t-shirts for curricular community engagement projects for 2012.
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