On December 8-9, 2016, 64 members of the eXtension Foundation’s new Community Issue Corps representing eight project teams from Communities of Practice (CoPs) convened at the Detroit Renaissance Center Hotel to participate in an eXtension Designathon. The Designathon is a high-energy workshop that guides participants with innovative ideas for addressing local issues through the creation of concept maps for their projects, supported by one-on-one mentoring from expert key informants.
The Designathon method was first introduced to the 126 members of eXtension’s first Issue Corps at eXtension’s NeXC2016 national conference. Feedback from this event and several smaller “test” events were so positive that eXtension has refined the Designathon and made it part of eXtension’s “issue response toolkit” offerings.
The Designathon is included as part of each Issue Corps and is available as a stand-alone service that can be requested by eXtension Foundation member institutions. The process helps teams develop and articulate an issue response strategy focused on local, regional, or statewide impact.
For more on the Community Issue Corps projects and teams, see the CIC Roster.