How might we create an interactive experience to inform community members and supporters of IslamicFamily about the significance of affordable housing, while highlighting the importance of the role of the frontline worker in supporting families?
<aside> <img src="/icons/more_lightgray.svg" alt="/icons/more_lightgray.svg" width="40px" /> This article aims to share the process of developing a simulation-based activity to inform community members and supporters about the significance of affordable housing and the importance of the work of frontline workers. It also includes access to a Replication Guide, allowing interested groups to run this simulation in their own communities.
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To access a folder containing all printable material that is part of the set, please complete this form (the material is specific to the scenario that was prepared for this simulation):
The Muslim population in Canada has been growing at an exponential rate. As a result, the demand for culturally and religiously sensitive services for communities has grown. In 1992, IslamicFamily initially started as a halal food bank run out of a community member’s home basement. Over the years, it evolved into becoming an organization that serves the Edmonton region, providing holistic social services that are informed by faith needs. While designed for the Muslim community, the services are available to everyone regardless of their faith or background. One area that IslamicFamily has recently begun working on is affordable housing. Through the Halal Housing Lab and the initiation of developing an affordable housing complex with Civida, IslamicFamily is addressing a growing area of need in the community.
Picture this: you are on your weekly grocery trip. As you approach the cashier to pay for your items, you notice a boxy-looking brown paper bag placed next to the credit card machine with a small piece of paper stapled to it - “$20 to your local food bank” it says. You look at your overall bill and think - I could afford those additional $20 to help a family out with a large bag of food like the one displayed. This response could be attributed to the tangible impact that the donor senses through a food donation. It is something that they can see, carry, and relate to (everyone felt the sense of hunger before even with the means to immediately remove this sensation). Now, imagine if your next mortgage or rent payment came with a suggested round-up to the nearest fifty-dollar-increment, going towards funding an affordable housing complex in your city. How would you react? With little understanding of the impact access to affordable housing can have on the well-being of families, the donation towards the new complex may not feel as enticing as one towards a more “traditional” cause, such as food security.
Through the development of a simulation activity, our team intended to create an experience that concretizes affordable housing to achieve the tangible impact effect, thereby actively learning about why affordable housing is an important cause that is worthy of their support.
To begin working on the exercise, we set the following general guidelines to inform our approach: