Newport Health Equity Zone Lab

DS4SI designed the Newport Health Equity Zone Lab that engaged over 90 residents of Newport, Rhode Island with issues around social cohesion by creating an engaging space to interact with data collected by local residents and organizations. The Lab highlighted data from over 500 residents pertaining to how health was impacted by: Food Access, Open Space, Parks & Trails, Arts & Culture, Education, Economic Opportunity & Innovation, Transportation and Physical & Emotional Health.

The Newport Health Equity Zone Collaborative was formed as an initiative to create better opportunities in two neighborhoods of northern Newport, North End and Off-Broadway. This highly resident-driven process aimed at identifying barriers to health and co-designing strategies to transform their community.

The Collaborative collected data from over 500 residents pertaining to their respective groups: Food Access, Open Space, Parks & Trails, Arts & Culture, Education, Economic Opportunity & Innovation, Transportation and Physical & Emotional Health.

After they collected data from residents, the desire was to create a community gathering showing even more residents what they found out and getting a sense of what resonates with others. So DS4SI developed the Creativity Lab to highlight the data collected using custom infographics and data visualization, and activities to encourage residents to interact with the findings and each other.

The Lab was a vibrant, intergenerational and bi-lingual space that over 90 fellow residents attended, interacted with each other, the data and the Collaborative members. DS4SI also facilitated a process for the Collaborative to synthesize all the responses gathered from the lab and from there, began helping them form ideas and solutions to inform their Health Equity Zone Plan. This Plan will guide their actions, projects and programming towards a healthier Newport for everyone.

This project was funded by our client, Women’s Resource Center, lead organization of the Newport Health Equity Zone, an initiative supported by the Rhode Island Department of Health.