dHive Foundation

Children are highly creative and have natural problem solving abilities. But their voice is often neglected in community development. This leads to

Lack of ownership in school and community development.

Lack of inclusivity of children, who are not academically inclined but have great creative potential.

Lack of connection to the real world. 

At dHive, we are committed to unleash creative potential of children to solve problems that matters to them the most. 

We propose a well researched process called Children Led Participatory Design (CLPD) as a key solution. Our CLPD framework enables children of both genders (ages 8-15) to empathise, identify and co-create contextual solutions along with stakeholders to the real world challenges in their communities.

Our solution brings in transformation by

* Building leadership qualities in children

* Develops self reliant communities 

* Provides alternate source of livelihood by making market viable products

* Sets in gender equity in STEM field

Education is a fundamental right to every citizen in our country. An excellent education is one, which is holistic and provides the necessary values, skills and more importantly a mindset to strive towards better living conditions for all.One of the fundamental roles of education is that it must enable people to solve their own challenges. 

But in present day India’s education system, children have limited opportunities to take an active participation in community development. This gap is much wider in the high need communities. While the upper strata of the society are moving towards design based learning, children from high-need communities are yet following the same rote level learning. This has critically led to a non inclusive education with no exploration of children's innate potential in creativity, decision making and problem solving.

Lack of exploration of creative thinking and problem solving leads to individuals, who disconnect themselves from community engagement and hence disconnect from solving problems pertinent to their community.

Our well researched and field tested solution - Children Led Participatory design impacts children, youth and women in the communities. 

Our solution has 3 step approach

1. YOUNG MAKERS MOVEMENT 

Through our uniquely tailored and contextually driven Design tool kit and cost effective MAKERS spaces, we enable children and youth of the community to identify and solve challenges that are pertinent to their community. 

Through this process, children becomes empathetic, self reflective and develop team skills amongst other 21st century skills. 

2. LOCAL CHANGEMAKERS MOVEMENT

During the course of step 1, local youth, who have potential capacity to lead the MAKERS space is identified in the community and are given training to run the MAKERS space and facilitate design thinking sessions. 

During this phase, the identified local youth also known as the innovation manager enables more number of children in the community to be a part of the YOUNG MAKERS movement.

3. COMMUNITY LED MOVEMENT

Once the innovation manager has been identified and trained, the products that were developed by the children are scaled up along with the help of women SHGs in the community. 

Thus, our 3 STEP approach creates a self reliant community in the long run.

OUR SOLUTION

We propose Children Led Participatory Design (CLPD) which actively involves children to work along with all the stakeholders of the community in the solution design process. 

Our CLPD framework enables children (ages 8-15) to empathise, identify and co-create contextual solutions along with stakeholders to the real world challenges in their communities. 

We believe CLPD brings in leadership qualities in our children by 

Empowerment of children in the community - CLPD fosters inclusivity of every member. Such inclusivity of children in community problem solving empowers them.

Builds sense of ownership - CLPD involves children co-creating with inputs from various stakeholders of the community, thereby fostering a sense of ownership of the community amongst children

Builds in technical workforce skills and adaptability - CLPD involves iterative processes, which essentially breaks the fear of failure and enhances the ability to adapt. Children get to develop tertiary skills by learning to use the tools to build.

OUR APPROACH - PROCESS

The intervention program called “Lead by design”, is implemented in schools and community centres in high need communities and engage children aged 8 to 18 years old.

Through the three phases of CLPD ( Unconditioning phase, Critical thinking phase and Design thinking phase) delivered in 90 sessions in a year, Children develop both technical skills as well as 21st century skills.

The End of the year will culminate in children showcasing their designs in an annual event, thus fostering an ecosystem of collaboration amongst the young changemakers.

Through the Lead by Design program, we identify youth, who show promising potential to run the MAKERS space. They are trained on their management and leadership skills. These innovation managers further grow our Lead by Design program by reaching to several other children in their community.

TECHNOLOGY

Children will use both hardware and software technology to solve challenges that are pertinent to their community. Children will create portfolios as a way to document their work so that it can be shared across communities. It will also serve as a tool to get higher education opportunities. 

Our Children Led participatory design focuses on 3 fundamental aspects of education

• Community empowerment

• Tertiary Education and Workforce Development

• Inclusive Education

We believe that by solving problems of their community, children not only become tinkerers but also become empathetic towards the world that they live in. 

dHIVE’s core belief is in the power of collective action from various stakeholders to attain the outstanding vision of creating community changemakers. The stakeholders who would influence and get influenced through dHIVE’s operations include teachers, community centre leads, school leaders, government functionaries, local artisans and the community. Hence, our actions (both long and short term) involve close association with these stakeholders. We believe that such inclusion of the stakeholders is the only way to attain our vision in a sustainable way. 

1. Hardware and software for Product design

2. Documentation of the design in the form of student portfolios. 

In the first aspect, Children and youth in the community use both hardware and software technology to build a solution for the challenge in their local community. While hardware tools are mainly used to build the solutions, software tools such as auto-CAD and Adobe illustrator are used to render 3D images of the product proposed as the solution. In this way, children get hands on experience on both hardware and software technology.

In the second aspect, children create digital portfolios of their work as a part of their documentation process. The primary purpose of the portfolio is that children from different communities can get to know about their contemporaries work. Portfolios also serve as a gateway for children to get opportunities for higher studies and scholarships. 

Our mission at dHIVE is to Foster ecosystems which enables student leaders for social innovation through participatory design. To bring this mission alive, we propose two part theory of Change. 

In short term, dHIVE fellows, who are Technical graduates who pursue STEM degree from outstanding organisations are provided an opportunity to work in schools and community centres to directly impart dHIVE’s CLPD framework. Through the three phases of CLPD (Unconditioning phase, Critical thinking phase and Design thinking phase) delivered in 90 dHIVE sessions in a year, participants will develop both technical as well as leadership aspects. The EOY will culminate in participants showcasing their designs in an annual event, thus fostering an ecosystem of collaboration amongst the young changemakers. 

In the long term, Local youth from the community in collaboration with the NGOs with shared vision, who has showed potential capacity for implementing the program would lead the dHIVE learning space, mentoring the young ones in the community. 

Our impact so far in the field

Scholarships and National design awards for children who participated in the program

Girls equally participate in the design thinking process, hence dissolving the gender inequity in STEM.

10% of products made were scaled up, thus forming a micro enterprise in the Lobhi and alternate source of livelihood for the women SHG.

dHive's grand vision of self reliant communities through young change makers calls for 3 STEP approach towards solution. 

Currently, we are executing the first step of creating YOUNG MAKERS movement by intervening in schools and community spaces. We are currently reaching to 200 students and youth through our Lead by Design program.

In the next year, we intend to reach 500 students and youth through interventions in schools (semi-urban setting) and community centre (rural setting). 

In next 5 years, we intend to reach 5000 students and youth in the community through our YOUNG MAKERS and LOCAL CHANGEMAKERS movement.

We believe that the greatest strength that we see in our solution is identifying the local change makers and training them to create ripple effect in the sustainable community development.

First year:

• Registration as a Section 8 company.

• Implementation of the DESIGN PROGRAM in 5 schools (semi-urban India) and 2 community centres (rural India)

• Fundraising for dHIVE operations.

• Facilitator/Intern recruitment to run the Design program.

• Design thinking workshops in schools and in community spaces 

Third year:

• Reach 1000 children in semi-urban and rural setting.

• Conduct design workshops to reach out more number of students and educators. 

• Setting up of “Child friendly” Design Lab that would in-turn allow children and adults to use the space to design solutions. 

Fifth year:

• Expand to 50 schools and community centres. (Reach: 5000 children )

• Launch of Children friendly Portfolio system: Sharing of products developed by the children, through an online network of different schools and community centres where dHive operates, through a version control platform. 

• Partner with domain specific NGOs and NGOs that work with livelihood projects to further develop and scale the deserving innovations of children. 

Immediate challenges in the next year

Organisational challenges

•    Human resources to set up the operations of the organisation.

•    Finances to set up and run the organisation in self reliant model.

•    Consistent intervention post first year in schools and communities. 

Operational level challenges

• Design mentors to conduct the Lead by Design program. 

• Training the facilitators in understanding children (adolescent) psychology to bring in effective facilitation

• School permissions and timings to conduct the sessions

• Identification of community space in the village that would be used as MAKERs space. 

• Parental (community) investment.

• Social hierarchical setting (caste based) that plays a role in children participation in villages

Challenges in the next 5 years

Organisational challenges

• Scale up of the project and expansion in other countries.

• Systemic social impact measurement of the project

• Maintaining the culture and ethos of the organisation

• Collaboration with organisations and institutions across the country to expand the scope of design education

• Financial model for self sustenance of MAKERs spaces.

Operational challenges

• System level permissions to conduct design education as a part of in-school program

• Setting up fellowship program to recruit and train Lead by Design mentors

• Identification and training of the local youth as innovation manager.

• Co-ordination with the local NGO in the project locality to set livelihood projects.

We foresee following as our major barriers through 5 years of running the organisation

Human Resources to set and run the organisation

Our current networks and networks through our work has helped us thus far in bringing in people who share similar passion towards community development. We would also train local community members to take ownership of the project in their locations, thereby enhancing the productivity of the project as well.

Finances

The next major barrier we see are the finances to set up and run an organisation and be sustainable over the years. We propose to take on a self reliant approach (inspired by Aravind eye care model) through which we reach all sections of the society and deliver high quality design thinking course regardless of payment. 

Consistency of the program in scale up 

Another big challenge that we foresee through the years is maintaining consistency in the impact and the way the program runs when we scale up as an organisation. In this context, we propose to have in house impact measurement team, who would do system level analysis to understand the effectiveness of scale up of the model. 

Currently, we are in the process of registering our organisation as a section 8 company. We have acquired digital ID. 

Sowmya Lakshminarayanan, PhD (2016)

Co-founder, (Partnerships, Program Operations and Training),full time

Shreyas Prakash, M.Sc Int.Product Design, TU Delft (current), Netherlands. 

co-founder, Program design and student opportunities, Part time

Krishna Thiruvengadam R, M.Sc Int.Product Design, TU Delft, Netherlands (current). 

co-founder, Program design and finance, Part time

Shreya Karumanchi (B Com)

Chief Program co-ordinator (Lead by design), full time

Kanmani, B.Arch

Operations manager (Full time)

My passion for social change began when during research days. Moving amongst my peers during my college days, I recognised that it was not always that everyone had opportunity either owing to financial status or the gender they belong to. This difference both in gender and financial abilities particularly played an enormous role in the field that I was interested in - STEM. This created a strong urge in me to bridge this gap. Hence, I applied for Teach for India fellowship in 2017. The fellowship gave me an opportunity to understand the grass-root level challenges in STEM education particularly in the lower economic background communities in India. During the fellowship, I got to meet Shreyas Prakash and Krishna Thiruvengadam SBI Youth for India fellows, who had similar passion to bring in systemic transformation by design thinking. Our shared passion towards STEM education brought us together as a team. 

Our tightly knit team consists of educators and STEM professionals, who have one common passion at the core - to unleash children's creative potential.We believe that our combined research, educator and design expertise gives us a unique advantage to use our fullest potential in bringing the organisation’s vision alive. 

At dHive, we believe in collective action for transformation. Hence, we enter into partnership with schools and organisations to attain our outstanding vision. We partner with organisations who shares our vision in self-reliant communities. 

SCHOOLS

We have currently partnered with Ilaignarkal Education Centre, Anjuman-e-Himayath-e-Islam and Teach for India. 

We are piloting our Lead by Design program in Ilaignarkal Education Centre and Anjuman and in using their capital to support our program. 

ORGANISATIONS

We are entering into an official partnership with BAIF, India ( a 52 years old pioneer pan India organisation in running livelihood programs) and MITTI KI PAATSHALA (Livelihood organisation in Rural Rajasthan). The partnership will help us 

- reach more number of communities in rural India

- Provide us network with the rural community.

- co-ordinate the livelihood project through "COMMUNITY LED MOVEMENT" phase.

We at dHive believe self reliance not in our work but also how our organisation functions. We propose the following service subsidized model for our financial stability as an organisation. 

Currently, our operations run via grants and donations from friends and families that we have procured. 

Foundation for World Education grant for running operations in Auroville, INR 2,00,000.

In the long run, we will sustain ourselves through

CSRs, Grants and competitions (20%)

Revenue from Lead by Design Program for high income schools (40%)

Subsidized revenue from Lead by Design Program for low income private schools (20%)

Design thinking workshops in schools and private spaces (10%)

Educational products and toys relating to design (10%)

My role as a laboratory scientist as well as educator has given me insights into the two dynamic worlds and the amount of creativity that needs to be brought out. In my understanding, dHIVE’s vision of creating community change-makers harmonizes with SOLVE’s focus aspects and hence we believe that our successful selection in the process would provide us with 

•  Enriching platform to network with people working in similar education related spheres. 

• Help craft a Fundraising and sustainability plan for the organization.

• Partnership opportunities across globe to scale our solution.

We would like to partner with organisations that share our grand vision of self reliant communities in India and outside. Through a partnership with organisations such as IDEO, who are pioneer in Human centred design, we believe that our work towards enabling next generation design thinkers would be more effective. 

not applicable

not applicable

Not applicable

NA