Maryland Institute College of Art issued the following announcement on June 22.
In Fall 2016, an interdisciplinary team of undergraduate and graduate students at the Center for Social Design at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) collaborated with Baltimore City Health Department’s Tobacco Free Baltimore initiative to address the impact of smoke exposure in the home. In Baltimore, 50 percent of Baltimore middle schoolers live with a smoker. In 2013, 14 of 17 sleep-related deaths reported secondhand smoke exposure. Significant disparities exist, such as 37.12% of those with income $15,000-$24,999 reported smoking compared to a City average of 21.2% and 25.18% of Black people reported smoking cigarettes vs 18.76% for white people*.
Utilizing a human-centered, collaborative and design-driven approach, the team met with health professionals to better understand the problem, interviewed families to gain new insights, and facilitated design workshops to generate ideas and prototypes. The research and brainstorming resulted in HealthiAir, a pop-up event that supports families in creating smoke-free comfort zones in their homes, identifying practical ways to get started, and connecting to the resources they need.
Original source can be found here.
Source: Maryland Institute College of Art
