ROBUST RESOURCE GUIDES
The following public-facing guides were created by TYTHEdesign in partnership with organizations ranging from the Dept. of Health to public libraries.
Community Engagement Almanac
To help community-based organizations plan for comprehensive engagements
With more than a decade of experience, TYTHEdesign designed this resource with challenges faced by the social sector in mind. It presents best practices and ideas that respond to the constantly changing environment and effective tools to make engagement decisions equitably to help you advocate for the value of community engagement, even during crisis. You can also download a Spanish language version of the almanac. Additionally, we have created a set of webinars to help you navigate the almanac’s varied features and components, including interviews from the field with community engagement practitioners across New York City.
Learn more about TYTHE’s work with DOHMH on the Community Engagement Almanac
Health in Action Toolkit
To support the capacity for local organizations to take part in the Health in Action initiative
Health in Action is an initiative of the Bureau of Harlem Neighborhood Health at the NYC Department of Health. In collaboration with local community partners, the Health in Action process provides funding to innovative community projects through a participatory grant-making process and builds capacity for local organizations through knowledge growth and skills development. TYTHE created a website to support the distribution of the toolkit and further illustrate how Health in Action works with a webinar including interviews and Q&A with past program participants and partners from East Harlem. The website features elements including the East Harlem story, FAQs around how the program is operationalized, and ways to share how you hope to shape health outcomes in your community through Health in Action. View the webinar introducing the toolkit, or download it directly from the website.
Learn more about TYTHE’s work with Health in Action and the Bureau of Harlem Neighborhood Health
BKLYNConnect Playbook
To provide a resource and process for organizations interested in utilizing a human-centered design process to implement a free public WiFi pilot
The BKLYN Playbook is a collaborative effort of the Brooklyn Public Library and TYTHEdesign. The intention of this document is to provide a resource and process for organizations interested in utilizing a human-centered design process to explore and/or implement a free public WiFi pilot in their neighborhoods; actionable tools for supporting community research; and insights, lessons, and transparency from the process BPL undertook for the BklynConnect pilot. The overall purpose of BklynConnect was to implement a small-scale WiFi network outside the four walls of the library in response to the community’s diverse and changing digital equity, career development, and early literacy needs. This playbook is designed for organizations (including libraries, city officials, and community-based organizations) to enhance their capacity to plan and implement similar pilots.
The Library Story: A Strategic Storytelling Toolkit for Public Libraries
To enhance libraries’ capacity to provide 21st century resources, services, and programs to their communities
The Library Story toolkit was created by Get Storied and designed by TYTHEdesign, in partnership with the State Library of Pennsylvania. It is designed for libraries to enhance their capacity to provide 21st century resources, services and programs to their communities. It demonstrates how to use storytelling to more effectively communicate with the community using a framework to plan the library’s story and bring it to life. There are activities, templates, and tips to spark storytelling ideas and help communicate both internally and externally.
Learn more about TYTHE’s collaboration with the Pennsylvania State Library System
TOOLS AND ACTIVITY GUIDES
The tools below were created by TYTHEdesign for trainings and classes on stakeholder engagement, facilitation, and civic engagement. These handouts and grab-and-go activity guides are adaptable for a variety of contexts.
Consultancy Protocol
To provide a framework to support your team or community in discussing and problem-solving issues or challenges that come up in a productive and equitable way
The Consultancy Protocol provides a framework to support your team or community to discuss and problem-solve issues or challenges that come up in a productive and equitable way. This tool provides instructions for participants to frame an idea or a challenge directly impacting their work, initiative, project, or organization in context. Then the group provides feedback according to a set format by asking clarifying questions, probing questions, and offering ideas for improvement.
Rubrics as an Election Evaluation Tool
To provide a guide for you or your team to evaluate a candidate’s platform as it aligns with your values to help you make an informed and educated decision
Rubrics are a system for supporting outcomes around decision-making that can provide consistency in evaluating a topic, issue, or even candidates. Rubrics can act as decision-making models that are directly supported by your values specific and tailored to your needs. In this example, a rubric can be used to evaluate political candidates and responses to specific topics, providing consistency and clarity. Setting social values that define the equitable and vibrant city you envision can help bring clarity to an election season. This tool provides a guide for you or your team to evaluate a candidate’s platform as it aligns with your values to help you make an informed and educated decision when it comes to electing officials.
Civic Engagement Activity Guide: Story Circle
To provide facilitators with the tools to pick up a Story Circle activity and lead an interactive community dialogue with groups of any age or size
Learning about one’s community is a key component of civic engagement. Storytelling is an engaging and interactive form of research, but the term “research” can feel out of reach for many. A storytelling approach to community research provides community members with a familiar context to learn about the world around them. Story Circles provide an easy access point to interactive community dialogue with a wide range of participants. This activity guide provides facilitators with the tools to lead this activity with groups of any age or size.
Learn more about TYTHE’s work with the Dept. of Youth and Community Development
Storyboards: Affirming Stakeholder Research
To support the presentation and confirmation of stakeholder data with those participating in research
Storyboarding supports the presentation and confirmation of stakeholder data with those participating in research. A storyboard is a series of comic book frames that spotlight key moments to build a narrative. This visual format engages participants in a collaborative and creative review process of the data, in which they have an opportunity to bolster it with feedback and prioritization.