Shaping Made By Us’ Nationwide Initiative to Connect Young People to History

Program Evaluation
Written By Cathy Sigmond

Client: Made By Us | Location: Atlanta, GA | Funding: National Endowment for the Humanities

 
 

We helped Made By Us understand the impact of its flagship program, Civic Season, which mobilizes Young People to use history to understand our past and shape our future.

OVERVIEW

We partnered with Made By Us to evaluate the impact of its flagship program, Civic Season, in its second year running. Held annually between Juneteenth and July 4th, Civic Season “rolls out the welcome mat” for Young People—the future inheritors of the United States—by connecting them to 150+ museums, historic sites, and historical societies and putting history in their hands as a tool for informed, inspired civic participation. 

Our work, and Civic Season’s implementation, came at a time when the gap between Young People (age 18-30) and history organizations was huge. History organizations had struggled to build authentic relationships with Young People; likewise, Young People lacked understanding of history museums’ relevance to causes and issues they care about today.

APPROACH

We designed a multi-method evaluation to understand the impact of Civic Season on Made By Us’ core audiences and gain insight into potential new audiences. This involved: 

  • Standardized interviews with Young People who participated in Civic Season, to understand their motivations to participate in and experiences with Civic Season;

  • In-depth interviews with representatives from Made By Us’ coalition of museums, historic sites, and historical societies, to understand the highs and lows of their experiences as Made By Us’ partners who helped bring Civic Season to life; and

  • Exploratory interviews with Young People who did not participate in Civic Season, to understand what motivates their civic engagement, how they value history, and what about Civic Season does or does not appeal to them (and why). 

We prepared a comprehensive report synthesizing the trends and patterns that emerged across methods. We also led a participatory Using Data Workshop to help Made By Us and its design partners using our findings to generate tactical actions they could take to shape Civic Season. 

CLIENT TAKEAWAYS

We found that Young People who participated enjoyed Civic Season, but also experienced some pain points, particularly around feeling part of a community of peers passionate about civic engagement; this was something Young People who did not participate craved as well. Made By Us’ coalition partners likewise valued Civic Season for how it helped them begin to deepen their understanding of Young People, but also felt they had a long way to go in building long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationships with this audience. 

As a young organization that takes an audience-first and iterative approach to all its programming, Made By Us is using our insights to shape and grow Civic Season, making incremental yet tactical, data-driven changes as they gear up for the program’s third year.

If you'd like a copy of the report, please send us an email at hello@keracollective.com and we'll be in touch.

Cathy Sigmond

Cathy brings many years of experience in education and experience design to her role as Head of Strategy at Kera Collective. 

Having previously worked in a variety of educational settings, Cathy is driven by her constant fascination and delight at how people make discoveries about the familiar and the unfamiliar. 

Cathy loves helping to shape experiences that spark curiosity and make a difference in people’s lives. She particularly enjoys the rapid, iterative nature of design-based research and the deep insights that come from qualitative research, especially on projects exploring interactions with the digital and built environments. 

Cathy shares her passion for experience design research widely and regularly guest lectures for graduate programs, including the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Exhibition and Experience Design Program and the Pratt Institute’s School of Information. Cathy served as the co-chair of the Museum Computer Network’s Human-Centered Design special interest group from 2018-2021.

Outside of work, you can usually find Cathy playing soccer, thrifting, or making her way through her large cookbook collection. 

Cathy’s favorite museum experiences are immersive; she will always vividly remember walking through the giant heart at the Franklin Institute, being surrounded by birds at the Peabody Essex Museum, and hearing centuries-old instruments come to life at the Museum of Musical Instruments. 

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