A community engagement workshop took place in Ocean View on 25 May, 2024 to introduce new community members to the OV Krone Voucher and re-energize interest in using Krone for community members who had attended the previous workshop. There were 8 participants who were recruited via WhatsApp, and word of mouth.
In the previous workshop in 2023, Krone was exchanged using USSD on a phone which incurs costs for each transaction. This system was completely overhauled in 2024 and moved to a phone application for exchanging Krone. This workshop was used to help some new members to understand community asset vouchers, understand the businesses and local NGOs being run by the attendees - especially any potential local trade or uses of rewards systems and prepare the users for the new phone application.
Note we uke OVK to denote the Krone community voucher
Time | Activity | Who |
---|---|---|
12.00 - 12.15 | Arrival, coffee & registration | Rebecca, David and Ganief: Greet guests and check names off registration list |
12.15 - 12.30 | Grounding & session overview | Rebecca: Icebreaker David & Ganief: Background |
12.30 - 12.45 | Presentation: Intro to Community Asset Vouchers | Rebecca |
12.45 - 13.15 | Lunch and survey | |
13.15 - 14.00 | String and bean games | Rebecca |
14.00 - 14.10 | Break | |
14.10 - 15.00 | Persona discovery & feedback | |
15.00 - 15.20 | Q&A | Rebecca |
15.20 - 15.30 | Summary and next steps | Rebecca, David & Ganief |
We introduced the community asset voucher by using a role play exercise where each person chose a business or service to represent such as offering school tutoring services, or providing car washes and then traded with each other.
Role playing trading was first done in a circle where each time a trade happened community members connected a string of between each person trading. Over time you could visually see all the local trade connections between the community and which services were popular and which weren’t.
Following this, a role play exercise was carried out where each service was represented by a different voucher (beans, macaroni etc.) and a fixed set of vouchers was issued to each trading member based on the value they are prepared to trade. Participants then traded these vouchers with each other - buying and selling services. The vouchers represent the value offered by the community asset and they could at first simply be mapped 1:1 with the South African rand (our starting approach with the Krone voucher)
Following this role play exercise we asked each community member to describe their situation and what current local trade dynamics there are amongst business owners in OCean View and what kind of community services ought to be rewarded with OVK.
At the end of the workshop a quick preview of the new phone application was shown but it was explained that the following workshop would focus on testing out the new phone application.
Here is some of our key learning from these discussions:
- There needs to be a clear value proposition for income generation opportunities. Several participants shared that they were struggling to make ends meet. These people were primarily interested in how OVK could help them address:
- Supplemental income. For example, one participant worked as a waste collector and received a small stipend from the city. However, they mentioned that this work was laborious, dirty, underpaid and underappreciated by the community. Another participant was unemployed yet served on the school’s governing body. These examples highlight a subset of OVK users who are either unemployed or underpaid yet provide valuable services to the community. A potential avenue is to receive supplemental income in OVK that can help them address a portion of their monthly budget (e.g. groceries that could be purchased at a store that supports OVK).
- Kickstart capital. Several participants had business ideas (e.g. catering, cleaning services) yet lacked the startup capital to develop these. They OVK help them reach initial customers?
- Leverage success stories. Several participants noted that in order to expand the audience for OVK, the program would need to focus heavily on success stories. They noted that the people in the room were self-selecting because they were already interested in community development efforts. However, others in the community would need clear, obvious reasons to join the network. Recommendations:
- Set up a program for community champions
- Create a cadence/space for sharing success stories e.g in the Whatsapp group