Solving COVID Problems
What are your names and which team are you from?
We are Thue Buch Hansen, Galina Zhelyazkova Doneva, Asger Glock, Mathilde Sigaard and Thomas Garde from Team 27
What are you currently working on?
We are in the final stretch of our first client project. Our team has been split up into groups of five, each having the task of doing a project for a client in Aarhus. This is mainly a learning journey for us to dig into the methods we have been introduced to so far, with the purpose of creating value for our clients.
What problem are you solving?
We are working with the Municipality of Aarhus to tackle the problem of high Covid-19 infection rates in people aged 15-30. The municipality has created a task force consisting of cultural players and board members from educational institutions around Aarhus to bring the youth into the work of creating a solution, called Ungekriseledelsen (UKL for short). As Kaospilots being educated in how to produce innovative ideas, make them into full blown concepts, and then implementing them in the real world, we quickly saw a role for us in this undertaking.
What is your solution about?
Together with the municipality, we have set our focus on two objectives.
The first solution:
The first is focused around UKL. They were stuck in their creative process, and we saw a need for a new spark of energy. So, we planned a brainstorming workshop for them, with the goal of getting their creative energy flowing. We then put the ideas from this brainstorm, mixed in with the best of our own ideas from our design thinking process, into a catalogue and delivered it to to the municipality.
The second solution:
The second is directly focused on the need of the target group, young people in Aarhus. We found out through our research that the reason why the infection rate is higher between young people compared to other age groups, is because they have a higher need for social interaction, especially with strangers, and crave a feeling of belonging in a community. It is incredibly difficult to create settings where this is possible right now, without going against the restrictions of the government. So, we set out to make a guide for the cultural players of Aarhus, on how to make events that both follow the restrictions, have financial gains for the organisers, and socially stimulates the youth.
What is most inspiring about your project?
This work feels incredibly important. The Covid-19 pandemic is a historic happening, and to get to work with the municipality on creating solutions for a new way of living is an amazing opportunity, which we take very seriously. Also, we have reached way further than we thought we would. The idea catalogue we delivered to our client has gotten a life of its own – Last week we were informed that it has both been sent out to all educational institutions in Aarhus, and that the Danish Agency for Patient Safety has picked it up and taken it with them to the rest of the country. We hope that our event guide will be equally widely spread throughout the nation. Time will tell.
It feels incredible to see that what we learn in school actually is useable in the real world. We are already negotiating a continuation of our work with the municipality, both in facilitating more workshops for the UKL, and implementing some of the ideas from our idea catalogue.