Breeze

Part of

Empower

Celebration of the power of art.

MA 2023

Keywords

Breathe, Beyond local, Belongingness

Overview

Breeze, is a service that celebrates the power of Art. By using arts and crafts, Breeze enhance refugees’ emotional sustainability, helping them in expressing feelings, generate income and better integrate into the new environment. Breeze consists of 3 aspects: making art, selling art, and connecting with the wider community, which relieves the stress and anxiety of refugees on emotional, financial, and livelihood levels respectively.

Collaboration

SECTION ONE SECTION TWO STATEMENT SECTION THREE SECTION FOUR

BACKGROUND

Context

On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, marking a major escalation in the Russia-Ukraine war that began in 2014.

The invasion was one of the largest in Europe since World War II. Resulting in hundreds of thousands of casualties on both sides and created Europe's largest refugee crisis since the Second World War, with more than 6.1 million refugees leaving Ukraine and another 7.1 million displaced within Ukraine in the six weeks since the war began. According to the United Nation, more than 3.5 million Ukrainians have applied for temporary residence in another country, the European Union has granted Ukrainians the right to live and work in its 27 member states for up to three years.

Home for Ukraine Scheme

The start of the Russo-Ukrainian war resulted in the largest European refugee crisis since World War II as more than 6.1 million people fled Ukraine. Governments in Europe have successively enacted policies in this vein.

The UK government introduced the "Ukrainian Homes" program on March 14, 2022. As long as they can offer sufficient housing, the scheme allows residents of the UK to sponsor designated Ukrainian nationals or families to live with them in the country.

RESEARCH PROCESS

We began our research deconstructing the refugees’ journey after arrival in the UK, along with services that are available for them. We mapped the refugee journey into 4 stages: Flee Danger, Seek Safety, Seek Access and Restore Rights.The main pain point we identified was the long waiting time in between different stages of the refugees journey, which causes pressure on refugees both physically and mentaly.

As a result，we want to explore possibilities between the different stakeholders and generate something that is helpful for refugee wellbeing during the gap between the stages of their journey.

How might we improve wellbeing of refugee by builting a system that enable value exchanges between refugees, volunteers and various organizations?

We looked at the problem from 3 focus levels.

First, from the refugee's perspective, how might we reduce anxiety to let them #breathe easily in between transitions, and support their day-to-day needs.
Then, how to build up co-infrastructure for WEA to better connect to the system and operate #beyond local level?
Last but not least, how could we fit refugees and WEA into the whole system, to elevate the current system to increase the #belongingness of refugees and help them better integrate?

"Re-imagine a service in a way that enhances emotional sustainability. Building a healing, heuristic, and humane community for the war-affected population."

SERVICE PROPOSITION

Breeze consists of 3 aspects: making art, selling art, and connecting with the wider community, which relieves the stress and anxiety of refugees and WEA on emotional, financial, and organizational levels respectively.

Making

The White Eagle Appeal will serve as the beginning point. The White Eagle Foundation's employees and Ukrainian refugees organize a variety of art and craft projects so they can produce original works of art. A portion of it will be used for exhibition participation, and a portion will be sold in the future.

Selling

Refugees got the chance to exchange with locals during the sales process at local markets and art festivals. The revenues from the artwork sales will be proportionately split between the White Eagle Foundation and the refugees in order to give them additional income and raise money for the program at large.

Connecting

Refugees then have the chance to engage fully with the local community and culture through local outlets, offering and developing chances for communication, gaining new knowledge, and connecting with the local area.

Breeze also provides a toolkit for White Eagle Appeal for smoother implementation.

VALIDATION PROCESS

The team organized a painting workshop in WEA and invited Ukrainian children and adults to participate in painting the postcards. To go further and sell these postcards, we contacted the Backyard Market located near Bricklane in East London and managed to get a stall for Breeze.

After all the testing sessions, we evaluated the value that Breeze will bring to different stakeholders. as well as the potential risk that Breeze might face with expert opinions from NHS.