Can’t Stop Columbus

Tim Fulton 0:13Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Confluence Cast presented by Columbus Underground. We are a weekly Columbus-centric podcast focusing on the civics, lifestyle, entertainment, and people of our city. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. This week, in this time of consistent change and challenge, we look at how the Columbus community is standing up. Can't Stop Columbus is a community-wide movement that tries to address some of the problems that have arisen due to the COVID-19 crisis. I chatted with Can't Stop Columbus co-organizer Mackenzie King about how the organization got started with a tweet, how the project evolved, the importance of finding ways to support each other, how they defined their process, how they've scaled up to 56 projects at this point, how they're planning for longevity and allowing for organic partnerships, and the importance of being authentic and respectful. You can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Also, the Confluence Cast is on Patreon. Find out how to support this podcast on our website, theconfluencecast.com, or at patreon.com/confluence. The Confluence Cast is sponsored this week by the Upper Arlington Labor Day Arts Festival. While recognizing that the Upper Arlington Labor Day Arts Festival is a much-loved tradition, arts and culture is much more important than just a one-day festival. As a result, the Cultural Arts Division is excited to present a variety of alternative ways to still celebrate art and artists in the community. Join us as we celebrate an alternative Labor Day Arts Festival with events and activities for everyone to enjoy. For a list of planned events, please visit upperarlingtonoh.gov/ldaf. Enjoy the interview. Sitting down here virtually with Mackenzie King, one of the co-organizers of Can't Stop Columbus. Mackenzie, how are you?

Mackenzie King 2:18Great, Tim. Thanks for having me on.

Tim Fulton 2:20No, absolutely. Thanks for making the time. First of all, tell us about Can't Stop Columbus and how it got started.

Mackenzie King 2:28Sure. So back in, uh, let's see, mid-March, uh, my friend and colleague Jordan Davis of Smart Columbus and the Columbus Partnership, she just put out a tweet on a Sunday night and said, "Hey, uh, how about we host a virtual hackathon?" And she tagged a couple key individuals, uh, friends like Ben Blancara of the tech community, TechLife Columbus, and several others who thought, "Hey, this might be a good idea." And funny enough, you know, one, one day goes by and a whole crew of OSU students came together and they put together a formal proposal for what this could look like. And what we ended up doing was collecting a group of people, folks like Derek DeHart and Nate Beckman. Uh, Nate's from Digital, uh, Service of Columbus and both Rachel and Derek are from Give Back Hack. So we just got a whole crew of people together and said, "Let's put together an organizing team, uh, for a virtual hackathon." But that soon evolved, uh, in a really exciting way. We were planning on hosting a virtual hackathon on perhaps like a long weekend a couple weeks after-

Tim Fulton 3:42Mm-hmm

Mackenzie King 3:42... we posted it. But, um, people wanted to get started right away. Like, literally days later, we had an app up, or a website called Support Columbus Eats that was helping restaurants communicate to the public whether or not they were open for delivery or open at all, uh, for, for pickup. And people were using it, and not only were people using it, but it started to get attention of other cities, so other cities started to adopt the code base, and it sort of grew from there. We've got such an amazing-

Tim Fulton 4:15And so just to, I'm sure when I record the intro in the future time that will then become what folks heard before this, the, the idea for the hackathon I imagine was inspired by, "Hey, we don't know, like, we're sort of under this semi-quarantine. Things are shutting down around us. There is a not yet declared pandemic happening around the world." And so was there... It was like a hackathon, and for those that don't know what a hackathon is, you sort of c- uh, a l- a bunch of people come in with different ideas, and then groups coalesce around some of those ideas. There's a predetermined amount of time to sort of solve a problem, whether that's spinning up a website or proving out a concept for an app or something like that. And, and you tell me whether this is correct. The idea was let's do things surrounding, uh, what's happening right now.

Mackenzie King 5:11Exactly. Yeah. And we wanted to, to really address the, the local business community, but also more broadly, how can we get communication out to the public about what to do? Um-

Tim Fulton 5:24Mm-hmm

Mackenzie King 5:25... how can we support communities like the arts community that are gonna be, you know, sort of locked up in quarantine just like the rest of us, and they often-

Tim Fulton 5:32Mm-hmm

Mackenzie King 5:33... depend on the, the public to come and experience their work firsthand. Um, and, and also just raising the question of, of how can we virtually support and, and, and be with one another right now. We wanted to figure out how to support one another. There were people at home, uh, working from home for the first time. There were parents at home, uh, getting to know what it means to be a, a teacher, but also working from home and trying to keep their kids busy. And, um, and we generally just wanted to see what the problems were and, and how we could support. And things-

Tim Fulton 6:09Mm-hmm

Mackenzie King 6:09... really evolved from there. You know, obviously I mentioned the Support Columbus Eats- ... website that, that was popped up almost overnight.

Tim Fulton 6:18Mm-hmm.

Mackenzie King 6:18Uh, but we now have, uh, a pretty robust process, series of process steps that we go through with many of our projects. So not only are they just getting spun up really quickly, which is, is an awesome way to do things, but in some cases we're actually pausing and doing a design sprint. So in the case of, uh, one challenge around, uh, helping parents with homeschooling, we went to our friends at, uh, Nationwide Innovation, uh, their innovation team.

Tim Fulton 6:47Mm-hmm.

Mackenzie King 6:48And we put together a rigorous design research process to get to know what parents are actually facing, what those real challenges are, and then, uh, some initial ideas on how we could address some of those challenges. And it actually, that particular project is one of my favorites because it evolved into another partnership where COSI came on board. Uh, we had, of course, technologists and developers on the team, but we had designers on the team, and then we had educators on the team too.

Tim Fulton 7:19Mm.

Mackenzie King 7:19So COSI came into the mix. We developed a program called Teach Back where kids could become teachers and teach back what they learned from their teachers or from their parents, and then post that information up to COSI, and then we built a whole curriculum around how to do that for the, the parents that are at home. So again, the projects range so drastically from, uh, things like returning to school or returning to childcare, to helping local businesses, helping get the word out around, uh, health and wellness, and then, um, supporting the arts as well.

Tim Fulton 7:54That's awesome. Yes, you're responding to what's happening in the world around you, right? But talk a little bit about what the philosophy was at the time of what you wanted to do.

Mackenzie King 8:10Well, I can speak from my personal experience, and I can speak for the group. But personally, I, I really wanted to engage with people, and I think there were a lot of people out there feeling the same way, like stuck in your home, and by yourself or, or with just your significant other or, or close family members, and wanting to feel connected to something bigger. And what I think this community has done so well is to give us each a sense of purpose in a really challenging time. And one of my favorite, my all-time favorite projects, although they're all my favorites... We have 56 projects now, Tim. Like, it's, it's sort of unbelievable.

Tim Fulton 8:49Oh, wow.

Mackenzie King 8:50But, uh, one of my favorite tracks of work is, is the Supporting the Arts track. And I got to, uh, bring together some folks like AJ Vandorelli and Adam Brouillette, and, and they really brainstormed what we could do. Um, in one case, we brought together, uh, Gravity and Kaufman Development to do, uh, an installation of art around the city where we had these mural cubes, eight foot by eight foot mural cubes. Uh, four artists featured. And we installed these at hospitals so that the nurses and doctors and patients could get this sense of uplift.

Tim Fulton 9:30Mm-hmm.

Mackenzie King 9:30It's called Gravity Uplifts. Uh, get a sense of uplift and really just see some art in a time when we're all really sort of struggling to get by and, and looking for that positive, uh, momentum and that optimism. So these mural cubes were put, uh, both in hospitals and in, um, high traffic areas around town, like Brad DeHayes', um, parking lot over on Fourth and Main.

Tim Fulton 9:56Mm-hmm.

Mackenzie King 9:56And these artists, they, they, they said to us things like, "You know, we're, we're hungry to do something, uh, but we don't know what to do. We need that, we need that outlet where we can leverage our skills, our talents, the things we love, the, the-

Tim Fulton 10:11Mm-hmm

Mackenzie King 10:12... the, the real, um, the, the real talent that I can bring to the community, the arts, and, and do something and get it out there." So, uh, Kaufman was generous enough to sponsor the project. Each pro- each artist was paid, 'cause there is a real challenge in, in the arts community right now of unemployment and re-employment.

Tim Fulton 10:30Mm-hmm.

Mackenzie King 10:30Uh, everyone was paid, and we got those mural cubes up and out. And, um, I think they were... The first day was May 1st, which was that initial reopening when people were starting to emerge from their homes, wearing masks-

Tim Fulton 10:44Mm-hmm

Mackenzie King 10:44... of course. Uh, but we were really excited to be able to contribute to, um, bringing a little bit of positive uplift to the community.

Tim Fulton 10:53And so what, uh, it, what's the vision of the co-organizers of sort of... Is it, in your mind, is it just, "Hey, we're, we're creating this community and what, and we're gonna validate what comes out of it to sort of be able to make sure we're not investing a whole bunch of resources as an idea that may... Not necessarily that it's a bad idea, but like can we execute on that? That, that seems too big. What's the philosophy behind what, how the co-organizers are running things?

Mackenzie King 11:26Yeah. The, the co-organizers are truly that. They, they help organize and facilitate behind the scenes.

Tim Fulton 11:35Mm-hmm.

Mackenzie King 11:35And what has been really exciting is to see that, um, people come to our Slack channel, and our Slack channel is actually where most of our communication occurs. But people from all backgrounds are coming to the community, from technology and design and public sector, private sector. They're coming and saying they wanna do something. They're posting early stage ideas, and then we, um, the organizers watch the ideas to see which ones are getting a lot of traction, and then create a project channel- And then truly serve as a liaison and support as that project is getting stood up. So we've got some tools in play to, um, look through our volunteer, uh, roster to find specific talents. Uh, so if, if in fact, a video editor is needed or a designer, uh, or a researcher, we can quickly go in and find 20 people with that skillset, and then lead them to that project and, and then help break down the work and get that done. So we're, we're truly at a phase where we wanna help support and lift up and, and help facilitate. We've, we've avoided, um, the process of, of rejecting projects. Like, it's almost a self-selection of what the community is excited and interested in sort of rises to the top and becomes a project.

Tim Fulton 13:07Okay.

Mackenzie King 13:07We have 56 projects across our 12 impact areas. Um, so we, we aren't solely committed to just COVID-related or COVID relief-related initiatives. Once the protests started to occur, there were, there were projects that bubbled up around anti-racism and equity, and of course, now thinking about, uh, back to school time or education, childcare, uh, digital divide is a really big area of focus and concern.

Tim Fulton 13:38Okay.

Mackenzie King 13:38So the project themes, um, evolve as the needs of our community evolve, and we've got, uh, a little kitchen cabinet of sorts of people that come together and say, "Hey, I've really seen this issue become important and a top priority, and is there, is there a way that we can bring a nonprofit to the table and, and some creative folks to the table to start addressing it?"

Tim Fulton 14:03Mm-hmm.

Mackenzie King 14:03Um, so we've, we've done that. Um, but most of our ideas are, are actually crowdsourced straight from the community. Um, as I mentioned before, these design sprints where we're testing out how we can get deeper into a, a understanding of user needs and problems and issues before we start designing a solution, and that's been really quite powerful to see in action.

Tim Fulton 14:31The Confluence Cast is sponsored this week by the Upper Arlington Labor Day Arts Festival. While recognizing that the Upper Arlington Labor Day Arts Festival is a much-loved tradition, arts and culture is much more important than just a one-day festival. As a result, the Cultural Arts Division is excited to present a variety of alternative ways to still celebrate arts and artists in the community. Join us as we celebrate an alternative Labor Day Arts Festival with events and activities for everyone to enjoy. For a list of planned events, please visit upperarlingtonoh.gov/ldaf. When you guys got started, nobody thought we would still be where we are-

Mackenzie King 15:20Yes

Tim Fulton 15:20... uh, at the, at the beginning of September is when we're recording this. Do you feel like you planned for longevity to the point that you needed to when you were getting started? Like, did it m- feel much more like, "Yeah, we're gonna set this up, and, you know, we hope that this, uh, enacts positive change for the future, but, you know, we're probably not gonna have to keep mowing this lawn for much longer"? Uh, now that we're sort of at this spot, is there a vision or thought around, well, yeah, things are gonna go to ba- go back to... Let's say this: th- things are gonna go back to a new normal, and is there a philosophy behind how this project moves forward?

Mackenzie King 16:10Yeah. I, I think that's such a great question, and it's been the top of mind question for the last month and a half in particular. But I would say there are some wise people on our organizing team that saw this, uh, as a long-term, uh, situation right from the go. You know, we've got a vantage point into the corporate community. Columbus Partnership and Smart Columbus are at the table in this initiative in a really big way. So they started hearing from corporations really early on that, that there simply... These corporations just aren't going to let their employees back in the workplace until there's a-

Tim Fulton 16:45Mm-hmm

Mackenzie King 16:45... vaccine. And now we're starting to hear that perhaps it's gonna be June in some cases, or March, where people aren't gonna be back in their offices. So, um, we definitely had a hunch that this would, this would not be a, a one-month engagement or a two-month engagement. But, uh, particularly in the past month and a half, we've, we've really rallied our community to raise the question of what, what are the needs of our community now and, and what, what is, what is the response of Can't Stop Columbus? What is our role in the community, uh, moving forward? Um, we were really nimble and quick and agile in those first couple weeks, in particular, in just standing up solutions. And we l- literally have 1,700 people in our Slack community, so we-

Tim Fulton 17:36Mm-hmm

Mackenzie King 17:36... were able to bring together a great diverse group of skilled individuals quickly. Uh, now the question is what, what type of engagement are these volunteers looking for, uh, in this same virtual realm, um, or perhaps in the in-person realm? We've got great partnerships with Point, and Point organizes events and programs, uh, to volunteer. So, so we're, we're prepared to help get people into volunteer experiences that are in person too, but most importantly, how do we leverage the skilled volunteers that are in our community and- We've held a couple brainstorming sessions and discussions that have helped us understand what those seven key areas are that we think our phase two might be worthy of, uh, focus. And I mentioned a couple of them, but, um, you know, one that is that I haven't mentioned that is absolutely top of mind and super time-sensitive is voting-

Tim Fulton 18:39Mm-hmm

Mackenzie King 18:39... and getting people to the polls. So we're not going to take a partisan approach, um, to, to the election. But we are really eager to make sure that, uh, the residents of Columbus know how to vote. It's, it's somewhat confusing, the absentee process, the getting, getting of your, your ballot and turning it in.

Tim Fulton 18:57Mm-hmm.

Mackenzie King 18:58So we've got, like, three teams already that are eager to support these voter initiatives. So n- it's the ride to vote once early voting starts. It's the how do you navigate the absentee ballot process. And we've got a team that's focused on civics curriculum, so what happens in the high school. Uh, what, what happens-

Tim Fulton 19:18Mm-hmm

Mackenzie King 19:18... when you've got 18-year-olds that don't quite understand this process. The League of Women Voters and Common Cause have curriculums that we're, we're sort of amping up with, uh, some extra design horsepower and some, some TikTok-style viral video production and really creating some momentum around, um, the, the voting experience for these young people, and perhaps the, the poll worker experience too. There's a lot to do there, and we've got only a couple months to get people in the right place at the right time to get their vote in.

Tim Fulton 19:53So as you... Let's call it phase two. I don't know, have you formalized what you're calling where you are right now?

Mackenzie King 19:59We, we've called it... Yeah, we've called it phase two.

Tim Fulton 20:01Okay. I would ho-

Mackenzie King 20:02So-

Tim Fulton 20:02I, in my head, having seen it evolve, uh, while not super active, I was in the Slack group pretty early on. Um, y- you're, in my head, you're at, like, phase four. So congratulations on that. Is there talk much or have you formalized what you're doing? You're a gr- you're a group, a loose-knit group of volunteers and organizers. There are folks getting paid. I mean, you talked about the artists that are getting paid. But there, um, uh, I imagine there's sort of a th- you're just the dotted line, uh, that there's a formal process for, you know, a sponsor to acquire something. But is there talk of, you know, formalizing a little bit more, having a board, having a donor structure? Like, is that part of that conversation or is that waiting for your phase three?

Mackenzie King 20:55That's a good question. And, and we have started to have some of those conversations. Um, we, we have a strong organizing team that it represents a couple sectors in the community. Um, and we've got partners. We've got l- I think we have 94 different allies is what we're calling them. Um-

Tim Fulton 21:15Okay

Mackenzie King 21:15... and they have come to the table in different ways. Um, we've got folks like Bell Communication that have donated time in their public relations skillset, um, all the way through to, um, folks like The Columbus Partnership and Smart Columbus that are supporting, um, with some, some time and talent and, and resources.

Tim Fulton 21:39Mm-hmm.

Mackenzie King 21:39We don't have a specific plan in play to set up a, a board or, uh, a more formal structure at this point. Um, we are taking a lot of feedback from our community right now and, and channeling that into these, uh, seven thematic areas for the next few months. And then we're going to have another partner roundtable and rally, uh, with our community in November, which will kick off the next phase. And you might start to see some of the formalities. Um, but we've spent a lot of time, i- in particular the last month, understanding what exists in our community already and, and trying not to, uh, repeat but in- instead complement and, and partner and pair with them. So for instance, we, we have a really strong Code for America chapter here in Columbus, um, that has sort of folded into Can't Stop Columbus in a really organic way to partner on a lot of projects. Uh, but Code for America is, uh, I would guess over 10,000 members strong here in, uh, in the States. And many cities have their own chapter. But it's, it's primarily focused on, uh, technologists and coders and programmers. So we've learned that Can't Stop Columbus is broader than that. But, uh, but in our virtual world, we've got so many projects that are in fact technology-related projects. So we're, we're pairing with that organization to partner with them. We're also partnering with Give Back Hack. Um, Give Back Hack has been such an amazing, uh, experience. It's a, uh, a weekend-long event that has happened here in Columbus for the last several years. But teams come together. They produce a social enterprise-oriented project over the course of the weekend, and then they pitch it to funders at the end of the weekend. But because of our new remote-style working, uh, world, the event is going to take place over the course of a week and be virtual. And it'll engage, um, the chapters of Give Back Hack from around the world, which is quite impressive. So yeah, we wanna make sure that we're serving as a pipeline for folks like Give Back Hack. Um-

Tim Fulton 23:56Mm-hmm

Mackenzie King 23:56... and we're also serving as a partner for organizations like Columbus Digital Service and, and Code for America's, uh, Open Columbus brigade. Uh, so we've got more to do in the area of, of understanding what's out there and, and exploring those ways of partnering and leveraging, uh, the skillsets collectively.

Tim Fulton 24:16Gotcha. And it's okay if the answer is no. I'm curious if as you guys have progressed, because you grew very quickly, right?

Mackenzie King 24:24We did.

Tim Fulton 24:24And, and as you said, a lot of projects sort of bubble up pretty quickly, and then things are sort of out there.

Mackenzie King 24:30Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 24:31Can you think of any, let's call them surprises, some may call them, uh, stumblings, that you guys have experienced in maybe growing pains or just you guys tried something and it just didn't work, the engagement didn't happen, or it, it was sort of something that you were like, "Oh, we really shouldn't have done that." Like- ... uh, any- anything there?

Mackenzie King 24:56You know, I'm, I'm experiencing something right now we just talked about in our, our leadership team meeting on Wednesday. Um, we've got these sort of focus areas for phase 2.0, things like voting and digital divide and return to, to school. And we're starting to wonder, like, the ones that are getting a lot of traction, like voting, are a bit more understood and accessible to, to people at large.

Tim Fulton 25:23Mm-hmm.

Mackenzie King 25:23But perhaps things like, um, racism and equity or unemployment, re-employment just aren't in that, that, that same daily routine and swirl that people are in. So we're raising the question of, like, what does it mean to get these, these community challenges in front of our community so that they can, um, ideate and innovate the solutions for them in a way that's, that's authentic and respectful to the need at hand. Um-

Tim Fulton 25:54Mm-hmm

Mackenzie King 25:55... we've got such a strong nonprofit community here in Columbus, and we've had a chance to work really closely with the Columbus Foundation in doing some of these design sprints to really, like, get to the root of the cause of, of these problems, talk to real humans that are facing them. So, like, how do we do that in a way that, um, can, can equally excite people, um, but it might not be as easily understood in their own day-to-day life? Um, I hate to say it-

Tim Fulton 26:26Yeah

Mackenzie King 26:27... but because unemployment is, is, is everywhere. It seems like everyone has a friend or a family member that's facing it. Um, but some of these pr- problems are really complex. So how do you start to unpack them? Um-

Tim Fulton 26:39Yeah

Mackenzie King 26:40... it's not easy.

Tim Fulton 26:42Well, and how do you balance the... Because you wanna use your resources to positively affect the most people, right?

Mackenzie King 26:50Right.

Tim Fulton 26:50And, and the easiest way to affect people is to get them to want your resources. It's something I think about in terms of, like, problem-solving, of is it urgent and is it important?

Mackenzie King 27:03Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 27:04And sometimes things are both urgent and important, but nobody wants to hear it.

Mackenzie King 27:10Yeah. Yeah.

Tim Fulton 27:11And so how do you... If you say, "This is gonna affect 10 people," and they're like, "Well, we've got this other project over here that needs the same resources that could affect 100 people."

Mackenzie King 27:23Sure.

Tim Fulton 27:23And you're like, "Yeah, but these 10 people, their lives are gonna be changed. And these 10 people... And these 100 people got to see a, a curbside concert." And it's, it's a trade-off, and it's-

Mackenzie King 27:37Yeah

Tim Fulton 27:37... and it's a constant one. Just to sort of wrap up, have you guys seen, uh, you said that the, the restaurant website was, people sort of took that and duplicated it in other cities. I'm wondering-

Mackenzie King 27:50Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 27:50... if you've seen other things, or even this model as a whole transfer to other cities. Or, uh, is the Columbus ecosystem as unique as we like to think it is?

Mackenzie King 28:02You know, Columbus is really unique. I wanna give credit where it's due. The fact that we have been able to see this grow into what it is and to see the nonprofit and private sector come to the table in, in such a diverse group of skill sets, it's really amazing. So I like to keep an eye on Code for America's Slack channel. I, I joined their Brigade Congress last year to get to know leaders from other cities that are doing this type of work. And Mihir Amin, who's here in Columbus leading the Open Columbus Brigade, he and I actually were on a call with a team in Burlington, Vermont last week to, uh, talk to them about some of the challenges that they were facing. And, and to be honest, some of the challenges we're facing, just like some of the challenges I, I shared with you today.

Tim Fulton 28:50Mm-hmm.

Mackenzie King 28:51Um, they're, they're facing some too. They, they wanna do more. Um, they wanna leverage our design sprint process to get deeper into the challenges and really understand what people need and want. Uh, so we're sharing some resources with them, and, uh, they're, they've been a great sounding board for us. We also joined, um, a international summit called Code for All, which is the Code for America's sister that, that reaches across nations. And-

Tim Fulton 29:18Mm-hmm

Mackenzie King 29:18... um, Mihir and I both presented to a large group of, uh, different leaders from around the world on what Can't Stop Columbus is doing. And people have been impressed and inspired. And, and you know, I've been in Columbus now for about seven years. I'm impressed and inspired by this community. Um, the way it comes together and, and the, the real drive to give back is really, um, it- it's, it's been awesome. Um, and it, it's personally been awesome for me. You know, I'm, I'm here going through the, the daily grind of, of adjusting to remote work. Um, and I know it's been an inspiration to, to many people in our community to have this sense of purpose and a place to give back when, when things have been tough.

Tim Fulton 30:04Yeah. Mackenzie, thank you so much for your time.

Mackenzie King 30:08Aw, thank you, Tim. It's been so nice talking to you.

Tim Fulton 30:10You too. Thank you for listening to the Confluence Cast presented by Columbus Underground. Again, you can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Please rate, subscribe, share this episode of the Confluence Cast with your friends, family, contacts, enemies, your favorite volunteer. If you're interested in sponsoring the Confluence Cast, get in touch with us. We can be reached by email at info@theconfluencecast.com. Our theme music was composed by Benji Robinson. Our producer is Philip Cogley. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. Have a great week.