UNITED COMMUNITY CENTER
Creciendo Juntos: Growing Together
We helped the United Community Center celebrate and showcase their fifty year history by creating both online and physical timelines detailing how the center and the community grew together.
ABOUT OUR PROJECT
Our project is to create an interactive online and physical timeline that showcases the United Community Center’s rich history and impact on their community. In the year 2020 the UCC will celebrate its 50th anniversary of serving the community. They have tasked us with creating a way to show how the community has developed over the years, as well as how they have grown with the community. They’ve asked us to create a timeline that is accessible through their website, as well as displayed at the center itself. This way, people can easily see how the UCC has grown and how the community has flourished around them.
THE UNITED COMMUNITY CENTER
Over the past half century, the United Community Center has served Hispanic and near south side Milwaukeeans of all ages through education, recreation, cultural arts, community development, and health and human services. In 2020, the UCC will celebrate its 50th year of Creciendo Juntos -- growing together with the community. The center looks forward to the next fifty years of service.
SCHEDULE
Goals/Opportunities
From our research, we conducted a precedence study to determine what makes timelines successful. We have determined that our timeline should:
Be Interactive
Interactivity helps engage the audience. We create an interactive timeline experience by creating a clickable online timeline and by linking our online timeline to our physical timeline using a QR code.
Be Organized
An organized visual display helps the audience better understand the history of the UCC. We are organizing our timeline chronologically.
Include Artifacts
Our timeline includes many photographs as artifacts, which help give the viewers a visual frame of reference and connects them with the past.
Be Accessible
The timeline is no good if no one can see it! Our online timeline will be available to anyone on the web, while the physical timeline will be in a high traffic area near the UCC’s fitness center.
RESEARCH
Our research focused on gathering information about the United Community Center, the south side’s history, and the importance of community centers in general. We consulted the Milwaukee Public Library and Internet resources.
We researched the importance of community centers to better understand the vital role UCC plays in the South Side community.
Then, we also researched the history of Milwaukee and its South Side to understand the context in which UCC fits.
Finally, we researched the history of the UCC itself. This research led directly to the items included in the final timeline.
Finally, we researched the history of the UCC itself. This research led directly to the items included in the final timeline.
Finally, we researched the history of the UCC itself. This research led directly to the items included in the final timeline.
RESEARCH OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM
A community center has two parts. My online and print research helped us understand the “center”, but we needed to learn more about the “community”. We attended several events to better understand Milwaukee.
Traditions are an important aspect of communities, so we explored two different fall traditions in Milwaukee. We visited a Día de los Muertos exhibit at the UCC and learned about this beautiful tradition, which originated from pre- Columbian celebrations 2,500–3,000 years old. We was touched by the beautiful offrendas—special altars for the dead—crafted by local artists and schoolchildren.
Dia de los Muertos Offrendas
Nicole also had the opportunity to attend a Día de los Muertos party at the LGBT Community Center. It was a great opportunity to really connect with people in the community. We also were able to participate in fun activities like making papel picados and paper flowers.
Dia de los Muertos Celebration
For comparison, we also visited a harvest festival in the Third Ward. The festival featured pumpkin decorating, scarecrow making, food, and drink. Although the festivals were different, the sense of community was the same.
Harvest Festival
Lastly, we visited the Latino Family Expo. There was Trick-Or-Treating for the local kids, a bounce house, and many booths advertising local services, groups, and companies that can help community members. Through this event, the community gained easy access to many resources. Everyone came together for this event as a community and was having a great time. These events helped us understand the vibrancy of Milwaukee’s community.
Latino Family Expo
SWOT/TOWS ANALYSIS
We performed SWOT and TOWS analysis to help us plan our project. We assessed our Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats in order to determine a path forward.We performed SWOT and TOWS analysis to help us plan our project. We assessed our Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats in order to determine a path forward.
CREATIVE STRATEGIES
Often as a group we liked to split off and come up with our own ideas, then presented to each other and took the best parts of each others’ ideas. This helped us come up with unique individual ideas and allowing us to use the very best ideas for our project. We also utilized our group’s skills in HTML, CSS, Microsoft Publisher, and Python. We created a Python script that automatically updated the online timeline from our spreadsheet to reduce need for manual copy-paste.
RESULTS
Online Timeline
We created an online timeline for the UCC. The timeline was a great success in celebration of their 50th anniversary. Since supporters of the UCC could not gather to celebrate as planned due to Covid 19, the online timeline was a great alternative.
Physical Timeline
We also designed graphics for a physical timeline, which will be installed at the UCC’s campus when social distancing requirements end.
IMPACT
The goal of our project was to document the history of the UCC, and in doing so we created one comprehensive tool for people in the future to learn about the organization’s rich history. This tool will be important to the community moving forwards not only as a way to celebrate the United Community Center and the great work they’ve done over the past 50 years, but also as an educational tool for students or community members interested in learning about the organization’s past.
WHAT WE LEARNED
The biggest learning points from our project’s creation are focused around research. In researching the South Side community and the UCC’s history, we often had to compile whatever facts we could onto our timeline draft, send them to our community partners, and receive feedback, repeating these steps multiple times and getting feedback. This cycle of gathering and verifying information can be observed and used by others working on similar projects in the future, as it keeps the community involved with the project as it is created.
TEAM
ALAN
Alan Van Dyke is a Computer Science major in his freshman year at MSOE. He’s a member of the Society of Software Engineers and a tutor at his high school. In his free time he enjoys reading and music.
"Being able to work with the UCC and help them complete their timeline project was a great opportunity. I really enjoyed being able to learn about a community I would have otherwise never explored, and being able to volunteer for such a great organization helped me grow as a person. Learning about the history of the UCC and their community was an amazing experience."
AMBER
Amber Rothe is pursuing a Biomedical Engineering and Computer Engineering double major at Milwaukee School of Engineering. She is actively involved in NASA Robotic Mining Competition, Biomedical Engineering Society, and several other student organizations, and she mentors a middle/high school robotics team. She works as a software intern at Rockwell Automation. In her free time, she enjoys playing Euchre, crochet, and reading.
"I have always enjoyed volunteering and helping in the community. I am glad to have the opportunity to help a great local organization in my new community, Milwaukee. I enjoyed the chance to learn about the UCC and the great work they do while helping them celebrate their success over the past fifty years."
AVERY
Avery Tiegs is an industrial engineering student at Milwaukee School of Engineering. She is a FIRST Robotics alumni and active volunteer at STEM and robotics events. She also enjoys reading and painting in her free time.
"Working with our partners at the UCC on this project was a great experience. It was really interesting to be able to engage and learn about part of my community in Milwaukee in a really up close way. The UCC is an incredible organization and working with them to document their history was a really fun and educational opportunity I’m very glad I got to be a part of."
NICOLE
Nicole Sedmak is a freshman Electrical Engineering major at MSOE. She’s involved in MSOE’s Theater Troupe, Swim Club, and MSOE Choir. She’s thrilled to have been given the opportunity to help the United Community Center in their timeline project. She also enjoys playing piano and playing video and board games.
"I am so thrilled to have had the opportunity to make positive impacts on the Milwaukee community this year through the MSOE Honors Program. When we first toured the United Community Center I was so impressed by all the good work they were doing there, and I was so excited to be able to help them this year. Overall, I’ve learned a lot about the rewards of volunteerism and connecting with my community."