Project Spotlights
Food Systems Planning
Publication | Ethical Lessons from Yesteryear: A History of Black Buffalo’s Struggle for Food and Equity
This chapter is featured in ‘Planning for Equitable Urban Agriculture,’ a book that explores ethical questions and challenges in urban agriculture planning. Ethical Lessons from Yesteryear explores how community members have historically adopted formal and informal means of eliminating disparities in the food system and the ethics behind their practice. Utilizing Buffalo, New York as a case study, the chapter explores the efforts of residents who envisioned food as a means to transform the sociopolitical landscape of the city. It issues a clarion call to readers, urging deeper exploration of local histories and the intricate forces shaping their respective foodscapes. By better understanding the challenges that shaped our current food environments, scholars and activists can design more effective strategies for tackling the issue of food insecurity in our communities.
Survey Design & Analysis
Purpose
In 2023, Stan Martin Consulting (SMC), the Tobacco Action Group, and other anti-tobacco advocates mobilized around banning the sale of menthol tobacco in Buffalo, NY, but lacked data on community perspectives regarding a ban. Through funding from The Center for Black Health & Equity, SMC engaged LifeSpring as a research partner to lead the development of community surveys that would gauge the community’s stance on a ban and its perceived impacts.
Approach
LifeSpring guided SMC through determining research objectives and designing questions that would map to each objective. The final objectives of the community survey were to identify menthol tobacco use, identify perceptions of tobacco’s effects, identify knowledge gaps, and gauge level of support for a menthol ban. The survey design was informed by a review of relevant research studies already conducted on menthol tobacco perceptions.
Results
Community members want to mitigate menthol’s impact on the Black community; however, residents also want to be in control of their own destiny and require more reassurance that a menthol ban is in the community’s best interest. Anti-tobacco advocates will use the results to inform their organizing strategy, create more opportunities for information sharing, secure more funding for community outreach activities, and present evidence of community support when advocating for the menthol ban.
Dashboard Development
Purpose
The HR team for a California-based software enterprise was faced with the challenge of providing concise, actionable insights pertaining to their strategic development trajectory, while relying on time-consuming manual tracking methods within traditional presentations tools, such as PowerPoint. The HR team brought in LifeSpring to help streamline their processes while enhancing efficacy.
Approach
LifeSpring worked with the HR management team to identify key performance indicators critical for executive decision making and designed processes to extract data from disparate internal company platforms into one central location.
Results
The implementation of automation has empowered the HR team to efficiently track both individual team progress and overarching company objectives. Their new dashboard serves as a strategic compass, allowing them to determine goals that are at risk of falling behind so that they can promptly adjust their strategy.
Testimonial
“When launching a new program, company or initiative, developing an evaluation strategy should be one of the first things that you do. LifeSpring Consulting, LLC was instrumental in helping us develop our baseline data and systems to monitor our progress along the way…their attention to detail and 1-1 technical assistance will help us achieve what we cannot accomplish alone.”
-Stan Martin Consulting