The Activity Lab offers guidance and tools to design engaging community activities. It has flexible parameters that provide a way to structure activities and spark creativity.

There are three main components of the Activity Lab: mindsets, themes, and operational tools. The combination of these components with your own creative agency results in a diverse range of activities that will cover the multiple dimensions of a community of care. It is important to stress that this is not a formula to create activities. Activities are an art that requires experimentation and flexibility. Some may work better than others and that is ok, it will help you to improve in the future.

    1. Read all the mindsets and themes. Think about the goal of the activity.

    2. Pick a mindset and a theme. Consider the purpose of the activity: what are you trying to achieve? For what? For example, if you need an activity to expand your community a formation mindset with a reflective theme might be most effective.

    3. Pick an operational tool and select the functional characteristics of the activity, this will determine the breadth, scope, and complexity of its contents.

    4. With the mindset, theme, and operational characteristics in mind, rewrite the goal/purpose of the activity. Ask yourself: What does care look like in your community? How can this be strengthened? What is an activity that brings people together in your community? How can it be improved?

    5. With the three previous components in mind, write down the main goal and purpose of the activity.

    6. Write down the materials needed and who should carry the activity out. Consider what previous knowledge that person might need.

    7. Write down the dynamic of the activity. What happens and in what order? How do people interact? What guides this interaction? Are there objects that facilitate the interaction? Consider the nature of the information being exchanged as this will allow you to plan what is the best channel for it to happen.

    8. Write down a conclusion to the activity. What do people take away from the experience? How does it end?

    9. Write down the materials needed for the activity and an approximate time length.

    10. Make sure to keep a record of this information that can be used to inform future decisions and activities.

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