San Jose Design Coaching

Over the courses of ten weeks, a partner and I worked with 6 directors and senior staff from the Parks and Neighborhood Services Department of San Jose to identify and implement creative ways to address senior isolation in the community.

We conducted interviews with community members, crafting points of view guided by their stories

From these, we developed and tested two prototypes:

1. San Jose Hears You, a program in which government officials create low-profile stations in public areas (libraries, parks, coffee shops) and initiate spontaneous conversations with the patrons. We found with this program that approximately 50% of participants shared something of deeper significance (beyond a surface-level conversation), often surrounding a personal struggle or failure.

2. San Jose Connect, a program led by active community center seniors in which members are incentivized to identify and recruit seniors feeling isolated or new to the area to community center programs.