This weekend was the first of three charrettes for a project called Maryvale on the Move. Charrette is a word I should have known. I believe Dr. Ellin, a professor I have worked with often, has mentioned them a couple of times. A charrette is a collaborative session with the stakeholders of a particular design or planning problem, during which the participants attempt to draw some consensus or new ideas from the sessions.

Maryvale on the Move is a program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as part of their “Health Kids, Healthy Communities” initiative. The tagline of the program is “Supporting Community Action to Prevent Childhood Obesity.” If you go the this website, you can learn more about the Maryvale program. Click on image gallery, and you will see a few shots that I took around Maryvale for this project.

Anyway, this weekend was the first charrette, and I was there to document it visually and see what opportunities there are for the program from a communications perspective. It was organized by one of the community partners, who are truly leading this program from their communities. This weekend’s was organized by the Amigos Center of the Wesley Community Center, a community group that serves the community around 79th Avenue and Indian School Rd.

What I tried to capture, visually, was the story of this charrette and the unique nature of the program in general. I want to let some of these images tell the story. What you need to know is that this was on a Saturday, in the meeting space of a local church, and that ASU graduate students in an urban design studio served as facilitators. Check out the images: