As Creative Strategist at Little Tokyo Service Center, I led a cross-departmental project team to identify an organizational challenge or goal. Through a creative and iterative ideation process, the team identified the challenge of building a stronger sense of community and feeling of belonging among the culturally and linguistically (over seven languages spoken!) diverse residents of an apartment building.

Foster community building and sense of belonging in Little Tokyo among culturally and linguistically diverse residents.

A multicultural and participatory, building-wide barbeque

We designed a creative and engaging outreach strategy to reach the building’s 300 residents and make them feel welcomed to and excited about the event. One outreach method was an early morning “drive-thru” where staff handed out event invitations along with conchas and champurrado outside of the building’s parking garage to tenants leaving in the cars for work and school, as well as offering invitations with afternoon tea and mochi to seniors. Over 200 inter-generational residents—the largest turnout the organization had seen for a resident event yet—came out for the building-wide barbeque. The event itself included interactive and participatory activities for all ages including postcards from Little Tokyo and a large-scale map rendering of residents “dream” Little Tokyo.