The Challenge

How might we connect our community to problems in a way that helps them to understand why they may want to take part?

About the Project

With the goal of supporting the vision of making Kingston a smart, livable and leading city, the Office of Strategy, Innovation and Partnerships at the City of Kingston (the ‘Organization’) looks to develop, support and integrate innovation activity/ies throughout the community.

Throughout the year, there are often many worthwhile projects and/or causes presented to the City of Kingston (or identified by various departments within the City). More often than not, these projects require resources of some sort in order to be executed (eg, labour, financial support etc). While funding these project ideas is often not possible for the City, the Organization recognized that there are people out there who would be keen to support local initiatives if they only knew about them! Providing information about the project(s), why they ‘matter’ and what the funding requirements are, could be all it takes for interested parties to help get these projects off the ground.

Project Results

An interdisciplinary team of 4 students started by carrying out an environmental scan that reviewed how other municipalities were working through similar issues and/or responding to these types of requests. At the end of the projects, the team presented their findings and provided:

  • website research summarizing eye tracking, conversion and colour psychology findings
  • financial projection research, including relevant trends
  • 3 persona profiles for the organization to use when marketing opportunities
  • website plan outline, with mock-up examples
  • a financial tool for the organization to use when planning internal resource requirements

Want to learn more about this project or organization? Contact the Experiential Learning & Programming Team asc.el@queensu.ca.