Growth
Growth is my capstone project at York/Sheridan Design. Growth is an interview-focused project that highlights the life stories of the participants and is an exploration of financial illiteracy within the Black experience.
Purpose
Storytelling has always been a part of my childhood, from listening to my mother talks about her younger years or my late great-grandmother telling me the stories of my past relatives. This practice was used as a gateway to our vast history; though personal stories of trials and successes were prevalent, we never talked about how finances played a part in it. It is considered earthly trouble that we all have to deal with and with this lack of information, doesn’t help the next generation build stronger habits for the future.
African Americans, Canadians, etc are amongst the least represented people in context to financial information. Though statistics are recorded, many researchers don’t take into account personal stories of living in a marginalized group. Growth was developed as a way of documenting these life stories and develop discussion. By providing a platform for people within the African Diaspora, this project allows their voices to be heard when oftentimes they aren’t.
Goal
The goal of this project is to demonstrate how major stages in human growth from young adult, adult, and senior impact our expectations, choices, and experiences with money, specifically in context to the African Diaspora.
Growth’s objectives are to create a clear and honest view of these experiences through the voices of the affected community and to allow internal or external discussion of the intersectionality of financial growth and race.
Method
Stories are at the forefront of this project, In order to have a diverse set of stories, having a diverse group of participants was necessary. Due to the timeframe of this project, I recruited four individuals who were willing to talk about their experiences. Many were immigrants or raised by immigrant families, in addition to their history, one of the participants was African American which allowed a contrast from Caribbean-Canadian experiences.
Interviews were conducted either in-person or via phone call and the questions asked were the same-given a few in-between questions that worked within the conversation.
Participants
It was essential to find participants from different age groups, genders, and experiences. Different ages means different interactions within society and finances. Education changes over time and even social expectations adjust; as a result, the project would be better balanced. I acquired my participants through word of mouth and conducted a structured interview, with a few unique questions in-between.
Results
The participants shared moments in their lives, how their culture, upbringing, and location dictated their perception of finances, and how to deal with the day-to-day tasks. Through our conversations, I’ve realized that there is a vast understanding of finances. Some thought of it as a necessity, others thought of it as something insignificant to their lives. Savings and ownership were similar, where the ownership of a home or car is equivalent to success. But above all else, each has a sense of pride in their culture and their individual perception of blackness. Each participant was hopeful for a better future.
Book
Presentation
The final production of the project was to be experiential through the book and auditorial transcriptions in the participants’ own voices. By listening to their transcriptions while reading the book enhances the experience. Viewers feel connected to the words of the book because it's from the participants’ own words.
A site was developed so all the audio transcripts are recorded and a generalized understanding of the project will be shown.
Reflection
I'm proud of what this project accomplished. It was an honest conversation about their history and how finances affected their journey. This project can go well beyond expectations, having honest interviews with marginalized communities provides better insights into their lives and enriches not only our understanding but it motivates new ideas to provide for the community.
Ultimately, this project can be even more diverse, with more age groups, varying economic statuses, sexuality, and different locations outside of North America would provide an enriched experience.
The ultimate goal wasn’t to solve a problem, Growth was designed to share and start a discussion on the intersectionality of race and finance.
I sincerely thank the participants for their willingness to share their stories.