Designing Tools to Counter Violence and Structural Oppression

Abstract

Violence has been identified as a public health crisis. As a counter to violence, street outreach work is a prevention model in which organizations hire residents with strong relationships and local expertise to mediate violent conflicts in their communities. In this talk, I will present the results of a two-year co-design study between a street outreach organization and academic researchers in which we collaboratively designed, built, and deployed a mobile application, Street Peace, to support street outreach workers (SOWs). Used by three different organizations in Chicago for three months, results suggest that Street Peace supported SOWs’ transformative justice practices to build a counter-structure to traditional policing, which is historically oppressive to Black communities. The SOWs used the app to mediate potentially violent conflicts without police involvement, build community through in-person events, and extend their communities of care through positive stories and narratives that countered harmful stereotypes about Black criminality. By affording SOWs more agency over their communication with each other, the app enabled SOWs to connect their strengths and scale their existing practices that combat structural oppression and prefigure liberatory futures.

Speaker’s bio

Sheena Erete, Ph.D. is a researcher and technology designer, who has studied the role of technology in addressing various social issues in Chicago for over a decade.

Dr. Erete is an assistant professor in the College of Computing and Digital Media at DePaul University and co-director of the Technology for Social Good Research and Design Lab. With a background in computer and social science, she is an expert in understanding how to situate and evaluate the use of technologies in resource-constrained communities to address issues such as violence, civic engagement, health and STEM education. Dr. Erete has a PhD in Technology and Social Behavior (a joint degree in computer science and communication) from Northwestern University, a Master’s in Computer Science from Georgia Tech, and Bachelor degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics from Spelman College. More can be found at www.sheenaerete.com