ExplorationMommy Groups and Civic Illiterates
Photo Credit: Mind Lab
Recently the Supreme Court held hearings on the constitutionality of the Patent Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Obama administration's health care reform legislation. As a one-time Canadian citizen and former beneficiary of the Canadian single payer health care system, I was transfixed by the exchanges between the justices and the attorneys as they weighed the role of government in people's lives and the future of public health care in America.
In the midst of the hearings, I attended an evening panel in New York City on Design for Public Sector Innovation, hosted by Parsons The New School for Design and the Public Policy Lab. The dialogue that night helped shed light on the fierce debate in Washington and caused me to reflect on our several decades of design for the public sector at Two Twelve.
The evening's moderator, the Dean of Parsons Joel Towers, reminded us that much of the opposition to an expanded role for government can be traced to remarks that Ronald Reagan made in his first inaugural address: "Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem." The president established this premise not long after we founded Two Twelve in 1980. In setting the course for this company, perhaps we saw it as a challenge to prove him wrong, to use design to demonstrate how government can be a positive, useful force in people's lives, a source of ideas, initiatives and innovation.
It must be said that there are more than a few grains of truth to what Reagan said that cold January day on the steps of the Capitol. Too many of us have spent too many long and frustrating hours in the grip of mindless and inefficient government bureaucracies, waiting for a passport or a new driver's license, trying to help an aging relative with Social Security issues, or trying to comply with the tax code. Government bureaucracy can sometimes represent the lowest common denominator. But I would say that this is not the full picture, or so the Parsons' lecture helped illustrate.
The panel continued with keynote speaker, Christian Bason, the engaging and articulate director of MindLab, the Danish government innovation lab based in Copenhagen. He told us about a different public environment, a place of civic engagement where citizens can have a productive and respectful relationship with their government. His most striking story was about "mommy groups" that have been an integral part of Danish family life for decades. It's a wonderfully simple idea: the government brings together young mothers who live in the same neighborhood and who have given birth around the same time, to form peer support groups and share caring responsibilities. It has been found that these women who share problems and solutions with one another are empowered to educate and take care of each other through the learning curve of new motherhood and are less reliant on expensive expert advice. The New York audience chuckled at the unlikelihood of such a government initiative taking hold in this country – too much inefficiency, too much skepticism, too much of an invasion of privacy.
David Bragdon, Director of the New York City Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, was also on the Parsons panel. He brought things back to the U.S. context. He spoke about "civic illiteracy," a useful term to describe the pervasive phenomenon that renders so many Americans ignorant of the actual role of government in their daily lives. It's what led protesters to proclaim, "Keep Government Out of My Medicare!" during the town hall debates about health care reform. Of course many of us do know, Medicare IS a government program. During the run-up to health care reform, Two Twelve was working with the United States Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ("CMS"), where the dedicated, hard-working civil servants who manage the vast system of public health insurance were dismayed by these protests and public ignorance of government services in general. Bragdon's official experience with the public's alarming lack of knowledge about the role the government plays in our daily lives, he said, "would make your hair curl." Too many citizens -- voters and taxpayers -- have no idea how important government services are to our collective health and welfare.
As designers we can help to change the discourse by helping government redesign itself. There are countless opportunities for designers to work with government agencies on important projects that can transform people's lives and their experience of public services. As a firm, Two Twelve has been dedicated to working in the public sector since this firm was founded. We are stimulated by these large, complex public information design projects and are inspired by the power of design to make a difference in people's lives.
By designing a passenger wayfinding and information program for the Honolulu Area Rapid Transit rail system, we are helping to ease congestion in the city, to improve air quality, and to increase mobility for those without access to private transportation. For the City of New York, we designed I Walk New York, a vision for what public pedestrian wayfinding can be and a roadmap for implementing it that has enabled the City to move forward with this massive undertaking. Once the citywide wayfinding system is in place, residents and tourists alike will have greater access to New York and all of its far flung neighborhoods. Our work on outreach communications for Medicare will help nearly 40 million Medicare beneficiaries better understand the complexities of their public health insurance coverage.
The decision rendered by the Supreme Court on the Patent Protection and Affordable Care Act later this summer will have far reaching impact on the discourse about the role of government in our lives, no matter which way it goes. If the law (or parts of it) is struck down, those who support the legislation will seek other angles to increase government participation in health care financing. If the law is upheld, the opponents of the legislation will find others ways to fight against expanded government. There is opportunity for designers either way: we can play a productive, bipartisan role in making it easier for everyone to understand the impact of the decision on our lives. Through our unique creative skills, we can help government agencies better communicate the benefits, rights and responsibilities we all have as citizens of the United States.
