The Inspiritus Project
Visualizing Change in the Southern United States
Project Overview
Partner: Inspiritus
Tech Used: Mapme, Figma, MindMeister, JS Knightlabs, Adobe Illustrator, Canva, Zoom, Gmail
Project Outcomes: Visualized 5 of Inspiritus' social services to promote overall awareness about the social problems and the social services in the southern United States. By creating two unique digital story maps, soon to be incorporated into the Inspiritus website, the team was able to create engagement and organization for Inspiritus' webpages in order to visualize and raise awareness about such complex topics.
Project Milestones:
Finalizing a project proposal with clear deliverables and vision
Completing a project practicum paper
Sharing our first prototype of the story map idea shown on Figma and Mindmeister
Finalizing both storymaps and making them ready for the website
The Inspiritus Project
Inspritius is a Lutheran service organization based out of Tennessee and Georgia. They offer a multitude of services in an effort to carry out their mission; "guiding individuals and families on a path from Surviving to Thriving"
Organization Needs:
Inspiritus' website did not do a good job of highlighting the incredible work the organization was doing. It was out of date, difficult to navigate, and lacked the personal stories of their staff, volunteers and survivors. Inspiritus needed a way to better represent themselves on their website to their supporters, as well as a way for individuals to recognize what services they offer and where.
Project Solution:
We created two unique story maps; one will go on their home page and the other on their Disaster Response service page. The home page map shows where Inspiritus' services are offered as well as celebrates their donors. The Disaster map highlights their work on different natural disaster responses, starting with their most recent.
Digital Story Mapping
This is the map we made for the homepage of the Inspiritus website. It displays their different service programs and their locations, as well as highlights their important donors that make their work possible. People looking to take advantage of these great services can quickly and easily find the information they need. This map can also easily be updated and added to as necessary.
This map will be on the Disaster Response page of the Inspritius website. It highlights their efforts on recent natural disasters, showing the important recovery work their volunteers and staff are doing while also providing information for people who want to get involved. Future responses will be added to the map as they happen.
Project Impacts
Storytelling
Great storytelling is crucial in the nonprofit world. Stories can influence people, their emotions, behaviors, and actions. Stories can touch the human heart in a way that very few, if any, other communication methods can. They provide emotional connection - keeping our donors interested, invested, and help generate fundraising efforts.
Storymapping
These storymaps give Inspiritus the opportunity to harness the power of geography to showcase our impact – particularly highlighting the heartfelt stories and testimonials of disaster survivors on the ground. These maps will not only be used for advocacy, recruitment, and outreach - but will provide an interactive, multimedia map that will engage our audience with projects and campaigns they are truly passionate about.
Networking
Through Inspiritus’ Development department, we strive to tell stories for not only organizational awareness, but to build an emotional relationship with our donors and those we empower. The storymaps, created by the Everett team, will allow us to effectively share not only our mission, but the inspiring stories of the individuals we accompany as well.
Progress
At its core, the storymaps created by the Everett team will allow Inspiritus the opportunity to share our stories in a way that each of our donors, funders, and volunteers can appreciate and comprehend. These maps will play a crucial role in showcasing the relevancy of our work and need for our services across the country - hopefully inspiring our audience to take action and make an impact.
Elias Hovorka (He/Him/His)
Major: Sociology with a concentration in Global Information and Social Enterprise Systems
Graduating Year: 2022
Roles: Project Manager, Logistics Officer
About Me: Hello there! My name is Elias Hovorka and I am 23 years young and a transfer student at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Growing up only an hour north of Santa Cruz, in the bay area, it was always a goal of mine to go to college within California. As a transfer student I took the risk of moving out for the school year despite the covid-19 pandemic. I had the opportunity to join the Everett Program as a fellow, partner alongside nonprofit organizations, accepted into the CITRIS Drone Program, and made lifelong friends. Some things I am personally passionate about include technology, social change, and outdoor activities. "When times get tough don't say why me? Say try me."
Phoenix Jarrell-Desch (He/Him/His)
Major: Sociology with a concentration in Global Information and Social Enterprise Systems
Graduating Year: 2022
Roles: Project Initiator, Partner Communication Liaison
About Me: Hi! I am a 24 year old transfer student from the California Bay Area. Growing up I became interested in social justice work after learning about education inequities in my community. During my time in the Everett Program, I have been able to work directly with nonprofit organizations and improve my project management and technology skills. I plan to continue working with social change organizations after earning my sociology degree from UCSC.
Marlon Monge (He/Him/his)
Major: Sociology with a Concentration in Global Information and Social Enterprise Studies
Graduating Year: 2022
Roles: Finance Coordinator, Technology and Digital Storytelling Lead
About Me: My name is Marlon Monge and I am a first-generation fourth-year transfer student at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Throughout my academic experience and time in the Everett Program, I have become quite passionate about utilizing technology as a tool to solve and social justice issues such as mass incarceration, the immigrant & refugee crisis, and climate change. As we move into the future, I hope to one day be able to apply the knowledge I have gained in the Everett Program at a non-profit or other organization focused on committing long lasting change for under-represented communities and those in need of extra support and care.
Heads
Working with a partner whos audience is primarily located on the east coast reminded the team to be compassionate, always being aware about positionality, privilege and power whenever trying to create an impact.
Hands
Learning how to utilize technology was a crucial part of this project. The team learned how to research and test technology tools, as well how to use storymap software and programs like Illustrator and Canva.
Hearts
Collaboration and communication was necessary when working on a long term group project, especially when meeting took place over Zoom. The team practiced a growth mindset when faced with challenges and solved them together.