start local ; a proposal for Sudan

START LOCAL

Start Local begins with collaborating with existing initiatives within Sudan, one being Impact Hub, which is a collaborative and open space for creators. Instead of building something physical and new, Start Local focuses on greatest impact without many resources, due to the revolutionized state of Sudan the country cannot afford it.

The masters and tools of our surrounding professional, societal, economic and communal environments are shaped by us and we are shaped by them. There has been an understanding of equity as an end to the world’s problems, but in reality equity is a tool that is as complex as the masters that utilize it and the controversial issues that turn to it. Equity as the action of demarginalizing the most disadvantaged by addressing needs and problems of a society to then restructure those parts of the world as necessary. Equity as the dismantling of the internalized patriarch that is built on racism, misogyny and genocide. Equity as the ability to see the deep rooted hate and bigotry that exists on a large scale and then unearth the ends of how we got there. But how do we understand or utilize equitable action through the realm of design? Start Local is an initiative that starts locally to reverberate change globally through a bottom-up approach of investing in communities of young womxn and girls in Sudan by teaching the tools (objects to- think-with) for a revolutionized nation. This initiative frames equitable action through the symbiotic relationship of urban planning and architecture through responsibly representing the environment, its inhabitants and the resources that exist in a space. As a collaborative platform for architects, developers, planners and the immediate community, Start Local adopts the mission statement of community and regional planners. We can allude to this as the architect’s reframed Hippocratic Oath: To Do No Harm and To Plan with and for People to Enhance Quality of Life for All in the Built Environment. This statement is loaded with colorful language that entices people belonging to this field however at Start Local we have made sure to break down what this statement actually calls for through Carmon Naomi’s words: To Do No Harm - understanding our positionality within our fields and not abusing the power/privileges that we may have. As soon as one life is in danger, then there is a problem.

“(a) Planning - as a process of communication with the people who are affected by the plans and those who have an impact on them and integration of this communication with the vocational knowledge and techniques that are required for producing plans for the future

(b) Quality of life in the built environment - indicating the aggregation of the outcomes of planning, the various components of quality of life iin the built environment like housing, transportation, community development, environmental protection, and many more. The built environment includes cities, towns, and their regional surroundings, emphasizing place-based comprehensive development.

(c) For all —as the composite of several meanings. First, planning is about making the various components that comprise a good quality of life accessible to all and affordable by all individuals as well as specific, relevant groups of people. Second, planning must consider not only the interests of the current generation but also the well-being of future generations that is, environmental responsibility is an integral part of planning. Third, even though the emphasis here is on individuals and groups, the all is inherently related also to some kind of “common good” (in Friedmann’s sense of the term; 2000: 465).1

START LOCAL

START

Start Local begins with collaborating with existing initiatives within Sudan, one being Impact Hub, which is a collaborative and open space for creators. Instead of building something physical and new, Start Local focuses on greatest impact without many resources, due to the revolutionized state of Sudan the country cannot afford it. Quick solutions such as Designing Justice + Designing Spaces work with the Oakland youth in creating a rehabilitative space by placing chairs into a supply closet, so by utilzing this resourcefulness Start Local can conserve resources and use those into the materials that are needed by the community.

CONTINUE

Continue widening the scope of the initiative outside of impact hub, pop up workshops in rural areas of Sudan can provide a way for communities to learn from some of the materials and improve their entrepreneurship and also give a space for discussions. In addition, formulating a lesson plan that could be implemented into a more permanent scope for not only young girls and women creators but also creating outreach programs for the juvenile detention centers within Khartoum, Sudan.

Furthermore, the importance of integrating evidence-based research allows Start Local to validate the needs of the community to those who can fund and support our initiatives. By alluding to Carmon Naomi and Fainstein’s step-by-step plan to asking the right questions. Here at Start Local, we want to highlight our most important criteria: intersectionality and social equity. These are our main objectives that can be proven to grow a community and society economically. The notion that growth and social equity have a negative correlation was proven to be wronged by the The American Economic Review which states that “Based on a theoretical model and empirical data from 56 countries, researchers found a significant negative correlation between economic growth and social inequality, in other words, around the world, when inequality increases, growth declines (Persson and Tabellini1994; see also Alesina and Rodrik 1994). Start Local believes that to make long term changes happen in our world we must begin with ourselves and continuously question if what we are doing is working and we start that with ourselves.

what the first assignment for start local could look like