At On the Mend, we are honest about our successes and our failures. We know that we can never fix every single problem with a single interaction. Below are some of our key reflections, and things we would change if we could repeat this work:
Manage queues! – Many other venues were fully booked nearby, meaning that floods of crowds were heading to a venue which had a 30 person limit. A lot of the time, people had arrived at the venue to discover that they had queued up for a 10 minute activity. We should have accounted for this and provided a way to manage queues.
Include a QR code or some means to make signing up for blood donations quicker and easier. Lots of people asked about signing up but would be dissuaded from having to search about blood donations on their phones. We should have had some physical and digital material at hand to help with this.
Highlight the underlying concept when introducing the game Our event was a pop up straight after the live operation demonstration. In the introductory speech, we should have made clear that we were focusing on highlighting what happens to blood donations and how important the role of women of colour was. This might have grabbed the attention of those more interested in healthcare equality, but less interested in a game.
Include two facilitators! This event was facilitated by one person, meaning that a lot of the time Sophia had to speak to people about health awareness while also managing the mechanics of the game and making sure no one was accidentally damaging the venue! It was a lot for one person to handle and meant that we couldn’t focus as much on the quality of the health information conveyed.
