A ToolBox for communities communication

This toolbox aimed to create a new “language” of interaction between young and old  people in low density urban areas. The starting point will be the most commonly used emojis in social networks nowadays to create an understanding of how graphic representations can lead to emotions and emotional coherence in written or text-based communication. The new language should take into account the local needs and produce unique deliverables to be used and improved from within the local community in an inter-generational manner. To enhance the use of this “new languages” several tools were produced and/or suggested. This output puts relevance not only on the capacity to communicate, but on the way to maintain and develop a sense of community, belonging and respect for folk and cultural heritage. Local communities are the new spring of human communication on the age of digital networking. There’s nothing as valuable as a second of human interaction. 

Below you can find a set of steps you can undertake in order to help your community create and enhance their new language.


Step 1 – Establish a partnership with the local school or youth centre. 

Step 2 – Start implementing activities with the children (6-12 years old) which will enable the creation of a set of images which, in their opinion, can transmit emotions to other people. The starting point for the activities can be the use of emojis as a way to communicate better (see the emojify game and the emoji’s game).

Step 3 – Create the set of images which can be representative of things and/or emotions and digitise them with the support of the children. Allow them to use this images to communicate important peace-building messages among each other and/or to talk about their local village.

Step 4 – Bring young and old people together in specific workshops (most likely in the local elderly centre) on how to communicate without talking. The children will bring their package of images and use them to convey specific and predefined messages to old people. This can be done in a “pictionary" setting/approach. In case the messages are not easily understandable, the old people must give their feedback to the children on what was difficult to understand and how would this communication process be enhanced.

Step 5 – The elderly centre will be provided with tablets prepared to send text-based messages to an account created with the children involved in the project. Additionally, the children will send written letters to the elderly centre in order to understand how difficult it can be to express feelings and emotions without the use of digital graphic support. The different speed of communication will be discussed and analysed in both settings.

Step 6 - After understanding the difficulties created by the use of emojis and gathering all the necessary feedback, the image package will be brought back to the children in the school whom, with the help of designers, will establish a final package of visual communication to be applied in their local community.

Step 7 - The local parish will be approached to create new local direction signs translated to the new visual communication package created by children and elder people from within the community. Additionally, social network communication channels will be created to connect people from the local government to both age-groups. A live online discussion about the regional development will be integrated. The visual communication package will then be used as a tool to integrate people in structured dialogue moments.



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