TL;DR
Venture 2 Impact (V2I) partnered with Ruwwad, a non-profit in Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine, in improving their programs through human-centered design and volunteer expertise. The initiative focused on enhancing the Design Thinking curriculum for adolescents and entrepreneurs, facilitating professional sessions for youth, strengthening the Business Support Centre, and providing one-on-one mentoring for local entrepreneurs. This involved bringing 17 skilled volunteers to Jordan for two weeks, from large corporations including Netflix, Salesforce, Google, Microsoft, Apple, TISTA, Century 21, Amazon Alexa and the Federal Reserve. The collaboration resulted in increased knowledge in business, marketing, finance, HR, and IT among participants, with high satisfaction from both participants and volunteers, supporting Ruwwad’s mission of community development.
THE CHALLENGE
How can we apply human-centered design principles and volunteer expertise to improve Ruwwad’s programs in Jordan, with a focus on the following areas:
- Enhancing the Design Thinking curriculum in the Makerspace for adolescents and grassroots entrepreneurs, with an emphasis on problem-solving and community impact.
- Facilitating sessions to share professional experiences with youth.
- Strengthening the Business Support Centre by offering strategic guidance, operational insights, and best practices for capacity-building and program development.
- Conducting targeted one-on-one mentoring sessions with local entrepreneurs, matching volunteer skills with the specific needs of these entrepreneurs to provide meaningful support and guidance.
THE INNOVATION
Based on shared values of innovation, human-centered design, and community-led impact, V2I facilitated a two week in-person volunteer opportunity in collaboration with Ruwwad Jordan – East Amman/Jabal Al Natheef. The goals of this initiative included bringing skilled volunteers from companies including Netflix, Salesforce, Google, Microsoft, Apple, TISTA, Century 21, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and Amazon Alexa to:
- Enhance the Design Thinking curriculum in the Makerspace for adolescents and grassroots entrepreneurs, with an emphasis on problem-solving and community impact.
- Facilitate sessions to share professional experiences with youth.
- Strengthen the Business Support Centre by offering strategic guidance, operational insights, and best practices for capacity-building and program development, and;
- Conduct targeted one-on-one mentoring sessions with local entrepreneurs, matching volunteer skills with the specific needs of these entrepreneurs to provide meaningful support and guidance.
Enhancing Design Thinking Principles
The Makerspace is central to Ruwwad’s programming, particularly within the Adolescent Program. Adolescents aged 14 to 17 engage in a year-and-a-half-long journey learning Design Thinking through various studios and workshops, focusing on solving community problems. The studios and workshops are all constructed and implemented by the Ruwwad Makerspace team.
Participants begin by identifying a problem and a target client or user, often based on their own experiences. The complexity of their designs are meant to grow as the participant progresses through the design process. This process includes:
- The collection of data to assist in discovering a solution to their design problem, through the “Empathize” and “Define” stages of design thinking.
- Ideating and creating a prototype in collaboration with their other colleagues and;
- Presenting and testing their design with colleagues and Ruwwad staff. Additionally, Ruwwad partners with relevant experts to provide feedback and mentorship to the adolescents.
The Makerspace offers an additional Design Thinking curriculum for ongoing business and entrepreneurship projects at Ruwwad through its Business Support Center, where participants are supported in developing business plans, and entrepreneurial skills.
Sessions with Youth
On a weekly basis, youth benefiting from Ruwwad scholarships participate in two-hour sessions called Dardashat, facilitated by Ruwwad staff. These sessions empower youth with skills in dialogue, critical thinking, debate, research, and effective listening by exploring basic concepts related to civic education. Additionally, Dardashat provides a platform for youth scholars from various programs to meet, interact, and learn from each other’s experiences and perspectives, as well as from external speakers who join some sessions.
Volunteers had the opportunity to participate in the Dardashat and potentially other sessions throughout the week. This involvement allows volunteers to connect with the youth and gain insights into their experiences. Conversely, the youth had the chance to learn about the professional roles of the volunteers and gain exposure to the world of work.
Enhancing the Offerings of the Business Support Centre
The Business Support Centre serves as the physical and operational hub for Ruwwad’s Economic Justice initiatives. Originally focused on grassroots entrepreneurship projects, Ruwwad has recently shifted towards greater independence by constructing a small structure to house their grassroots incubator space. This space will accommodate all Economic Justice projects and offer capacity-building resources to local entrepreneurs, including workshops and mentorship to help them sustain and grow their businesses. Additionally, the Economic Justice projects, facilitated by the Business Support Centre, provide access to financial resources such as the Economic Justice Grant.
Given that the center is relatively new and the organization is in a transitional phase, volunteers supported Ruwwad staff by providing feedback and recommendations on best practices for developing strategic reference documents. These documents were created to guide Ruwwad staff in program development. Volunteers also offered feedback on specific functions, including operations, capacity building, granting, and other processes.
One-On-One Mentoring with Local Entrepreneurs
Lastly, volunteers conducted 31 one-on-one mentoring sessions with local entrepreneurs. Ruwwad provides mentoring, financial, and capacity-building services to a number of local entrepreneurs through the BSC and are expecting their numbers to increase by April 2024. On the first day of the program, Ruwwad and V2I reviewed the list of participants and background information collected by Ruwwad to select a few individuals whose needs matched with the skillsets of the volunteers; who expressed interest in the session; and whose availability matched with that of the program and when translators would be available.
PROGRAM OBJECTIVES
Objectives for Enhancing the Design Thinking Curriculums
- Objective #1: Increase the Ruwwad Makerspace staff’s capacity to deliver the Design Thinking Business and Entrepreneurship Curriculum by enhancing the current content to include up to date and relevant information, improve staff skill sets and knowledge and their ability to transfer knowledge to entrepreneurs.
- Objective #2: Increase the Ruwwad Makerspace staff’s capacity to deliver the Design Thinking Innovation Curriculum by updating the current content to include up to date and relevant information, enhance staff skill sets and knowledge and their ability to transfer knowledge to the adolescents
Objectives for Facilitating Sessions with Youth
- Objective #3: Provide the youth with an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the professional roles of volunteers and learn about the world of work.
Objectives for Enhancing the Offerings of the Business Support Centre
- Objective #4: Increase the capacity of the Ruwwad Business Support Centre staff to deliver the Economic Justice project including their organizational processes, their capacity building program, the distribution of grants and any other relevant areas requiring support
Objectives for Facilitating One-on-One Mentoring Sessions with Local Entrepreneurs
- Objective #5: Increase the knowledge of the Local Entrepreneurs participating in Ruwwad’s Business Support Centre by providing one on one mentoring sessions focusing on business planning, financial management, sales, marketing strategies and any other relevant areas requiring support
- Objective #6: Increase the confidence of the Local Entrepreneurs participating in Ruwwad’s Business Support Centre by providing one on one mentoring sessions focusing on business planning, financial management, sales, marketing strategies and any other relevant areas requiring support
THE IMPACT
- 80% of participants were satisfied or very satisfied with the 1:1 training with volunteers
- 80% of participants felt confident or very confident in implementing the recommendations made by volunteers for their business
- 75% of participants reported gaining new or improved skills from the project.
- 100% of volunteer respondents felt it fulfilling to use their skills in a new way
- 100% of volunteer respondents felt like they made a meaningful contribution to the non profits they supported
- 90% of volunteer respondents felt that participating in this activity would have direct value to their career development
- 90% of volunteer respondents felt they gained a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by nonprofits
- 90% of volunteer respondents were highly satisfied by the quality of communication with the participants
Partner Feedback
Previous
Next
VOLUNTEER FEEDBACK
Previous
Next
About RUWWAD
Ruwwad is a non-profit community development organization that works with disenfranchised communities through education, youth volunteerism, and grassroots organizing. Ruwwad operates in Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine. Ruwwad’s approach encompasses an array of programs and projects that strengthen, initiate, and facilitate redress to problems prioritized by members of the community. The four main programs that anchor Ruwwad are child development, adolescent development, youth organizing, and community support. Ruwwad’s main financial backers are entrepreneurs and its operations are facilitated through a strong network of partnerships with civil society and governmental agencies.
You can learn more here.
About venture 2 impact
Venture 2 Impact connects skilled volunteers with nonprofits and charitable organizations to support and scale their work and will be supporting with the facilitation of this collaboration.
Venture 2 Impact uses design thinking and human centered design to solve complex challenges by linking global communities to skilled volunteers. V2I leverages untapped skills to create lasting impact. Through education, economic development, and empowerment projects, V2I works to equip NGOs, participants, and volunteers with skills, resources, and knowledge to advance gender equity, economic opportunity, and well-being.
Case studies about Venture 2 Impact’s engagement with non-profits and skills-based volunteers can be found here.
