Whitefield Academy

Introduction

The Whitefield academy caters in particular for extreme autism and visual impairment, with the mission to find real employment opportunities for its students. The managed process ‘PROJECT SEARCH’ makes strong formal links to key employers and arranges internships that leads to full-time jobs. Despite their success in the first year, Whitefield wished to achieve more and sought the help of MDI, to develop radical solutions to identify potential opportunities with new ways to approach partners.

The Project:

A considerable challenge in this project, was bridging the gap between designers and those being designed for. The challenge was to use the multi-disciplinary skill set and apply this to all areas of the Whitefield academy, to improve lives as well as create sustainable employment opportunities.

The Process:

The MDI team split into groups, ideated around concepts and formed radical creative solutions. Potential opportunities were grouped into areas of Funding, Partners, Identification of Skills, Support and Viewed Perception. These were then integrated into a series of short, medium and long term business models and a concept book was produced.

The Result:

The client was excited by the suggestions, and really impressed by the cohorts understanding of the issues and connection with the project. Few members of the team were given the opportunity to visit Whipps Cross hospital in London and interact with the students on their placement rotations. This brought the project to life and was incredibly rewarding, knowing that the hard work done on the project was having a true impact on people’s lives.