Material Innovations

The article Learning from Activists: Lessons for Designers by Tad Hirsch speaks about the Constestational Designer as “an activist who responds opportunistically to dynamic political, legal, and technical environments.” Design activists consider their work to be motivated by personal commitment and commentary on certain political and social issues and generally have a very short amount of time from initial conception to realized outcomes. Because of the limited amount of time given to some of these projects, it is hard to accurately collect concrete statistical data as to whether the project was fully successful. Design activists however benefit from being able to pick and choose whom they decide to work with (mostly volunteer based) and are more focused on enabling self-empowerment, collective action, and non-hierarchical organizational models. According to Tad Hirsch, “activists are people for whom existing social structures are somehow unsatisfying or inadequate. It is in their nature to continuously experiment with social form, innovating new organizational structures and new social relations.”

An example of changing social structures and context can be seen through the eyes of Stand Down Founders, Robert Van Keuren and Dr. Jon Nachison. Stand Down is “an intervention that was conceived from the ground up specifically for veterans, by veterans”. This is essentially an event that takes place once a year in order to help get homeless veterans off the streets and on to a better life. Some issues relating to homeless veterans include:

- unemployment – the current percentage of unemployed veterans is double the national rate (20%)

- drug and alcohol abuse

- debilitating illness.

- Currently there are over 9,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans living on the streets.

- The rate of homelessness among current Iraq and Afghanistan veterans is happening at a much faster and high rate than past veterans (generally within                               one year)

- We are starting to see more homeless women on the streets due to the fact that women make up 14% of our armed forces.

The primary goals of Stand Down are to provide:

1. Immediate relief from the trauma and isolation of homelessness: Participants are brought together in a safe environment free from stealing and abuse.
2. Access to short-term resources: Shelter, beds, food, showers, clothing, and haircuts
3. Access to long-term resources and providers: Drug and alcohol recovery, medical and dental treatment, employment counseling, legal matters, etc. In the process, barriers between homeless vets and providers are broken.
4. Community Awareness about homelessness (particularly homeless vets): Elected officials participate in Stand Down in order to generate awareness.
5. Replication: The event was designed to inspire similar efforts in other locations
6. Development of longer-term solutions in the community: Direct connections are made between the providers and volunteers that help put on the event. Typically over 2000+ volunteers help assist San Diego Stand Down during its three-day event. This is meant to help improve working relationships between organizations in the hopes that coordinating veteran services can be improved upon throughout the rest of the year.

In his article, Tad Hirsch addresses how design activists generally contend with oppositional forces from state, corporate, and non-governmental agents. Because there is little time and large potential failures with these endeavors, these projects are not usually seen as long-term sustainable events.  With an event like Stand Down (San Diego), this type of activism may not embrace the newest technological innovations but nonetheless there is an overall concern for participant feelings of self-empowerment, dignity, and pride in what they accomplish during this event.

Since this event takes place once a year over the course of three days, it is sometimes hard to match the needs of every participant. For example some veterans who lead sober lives can’t get into appropriate housing due to the fact that they don’t need rehab. In addition, it is also hard to track the status of 1000 homeless veterans. There’s no way to know how many are actively looking to change aspects of their lives. Stand Down simply tries to provide the necessary tools needed to empower change and give hope to those who are willing to accept it.

Overall Stand Down has grown over the last 22 years through the process of refinement in order to have the most impact in a short amount of time. Since their start in 1988 Stand Down has evolved in trying to establish a “military camp” environment that fosters a context in which homeless veterans remember a time in which they felt proud of themselves. The Stand Down model has been replicated in over 90 cities in the United States which revolves around the creation of a community that is based on person-to-person contact rather than person-to-system in response to how the traditional way of handling this situation is not successful.  Through solid leardership, effective planning, community assessment, and perseverance, Stand Down is a place that effectively provides hope, self-esteem, and empowerment not only for the homeless veterans who participate, but also for those who volunteer and contribute to the event’s success.