“Why is someone poor? Everyone has different answers, and those answers matter. We need to shift perceptions about those experiencing poverty. We need help crafting a story that inspires people to recognize our commonness and glimpse shadows of ourselves in the struggles of others.”
Early in my explorations, I had been writing about the cultural stories and myths around self sufficiency and what it means to be a success. I was looking into users including low income populations, the long-term unemployed, and those suffering with depression. So when this Hackathon came across my radar, it seemed like a great way to try out some of these ideas.
I spent a week visiting the organizations Lift Communities and Picture the Homeless, to talk with those affected and working daily with underserved populations, capped off with a weekend of creating a campaign to help change the message. Our team ended up producing a series of sharable gifs containing the emotions of those affected by poverty, with the idea that the emotions felt by those in tough situations are the same as the emotions felt by anyone. It was an interesting experiment, but left me feeling like this approach to the topic was way too broad, the "solutions" still feeling heavy handed. I was still trying to find the heart.
