People living in Austin’s Eastern Crescent district experience limited access to affordable healthy food, healthcare, financial and professional services, as well as other critical amenities due to racial segregation policies of the early 20th century. As a result of this urban desert, citizens in this community experience lower life expectancies, higher age-adjusted mortality rates, and fewer hospitals and clinics in a nearby radius.

A team of five learners in the M.A. in Design Focused on Health program collaborated on space design, service design, and systems design to co-create an entirely new experience for the community members living in the Eastern Crescent. Live Well/Vive Bien, an initiative piloted by Equidad ATX, is the vision for a holistic mobile ecosystem that services the community with the goal of meeting unmet social determinants of health—particularly the issue of food insecurity—for historically underserved populations.

How might we best utilize our available assets to design a sustainable, holistic experience within our target communities to address food insecurity in a dignified and COVID-19 safe manner?

Utilize co-creation and human-centered design methods to understand the community, assess their needs, and then create an innovative mobile grocery store. 

1. In a community that has seen many organizations come and go without lasting change, consistency in both visibility and physical presence is essential in building trust.
2. Many residents took action to help their community in response to years of disenfranchisement and unkept promises by outside organizations. Unfortunately, they often lack the organizational power to make lasting change in their neighborhoods. 
3. When determining community needs, it is tempting to think of an area of Eastern Crescent as just one unit. However, it is an incredibly diverse area, and its needs reflect this diversity. 
4. There is a substantial variety of food amongst the communities; for some, it is a means of health and sustenance, while for others, it defines culture and identity. 
5. Due to the fragmented and disjointed nature of the many community organizations within the Eastern Crescent, there’s an opportunity for Equidad to serve as the coordinator amongst an array of scattered partnerships.

Improved access to health services.

In a little over three months, the team of students delivered positive health experiences to the community through a retrofitted, decommissioned CapMetro bus that brings food where it’s needed most. 

The team recognized that the impact of their directly correlated with their ability to build trust within the community. With that in mind, the goal was to design with the community, not for them. This meant showing up for the community: conducting regular engagement events, canvassing neighborhoods, and plugging into online communities to better establish Live Well/Vive Bien as a lasting aspect of the community. 

Learn More

Find out more about Equidad ATX’s Live Well/Vive Bien initiative on their website: Equidad ATX.