People who are released from prison face many obstacles. From financial stability to building healthy relationships to receiving trust from the community at large, formerly incarcerated people have many difficulties they must overcome before they can successfully become part of society again.

This Design Lab team originally set out to help recently released prisoners reach some important financial stability goals.

The Redside Short Film Design Lab team created One Stone’s first year-long collaborative D Lab project. During the year, the team partnered with the Redside Foundation, an Idaho-based organization with a mission to support the health and strength of Idaho’s outdoor guiding community.

For many students with special needs at Timberline High school, feeling overwhelmed and overstimulated is an issue. Unfortunately, the school does not have the resources to cater to each student's needs or to have calming objects always available. This Design Lab team saw this issue and decided to hit the ground running.

The Food Fair Thought Design Lab team answered a challenge from their community partner: Simplot Company. Can they come up with an innovative fair food? The group’s chosen users are vegans. Prior to this Design Lab, the team had zero knowledge of the vegan community.

What is a passion?

For the purpose of this Spring 2019 Design Lab project, passion was defined as an energy you get from doing something that excites you and makes you feel fulfilled. Being passionate leads you through a doorway to new opportunities and different aspects of life.

The average age for a successful entrepreneur is 42, yet many high school students have great ideas. Many of these students do not have the resources or experience to create a startup that produces revenue.

With these things in mind, the Young Entrepreneurs Design Lab group asked “How might we create an entrepreneurial mindset among high school students that translates into financial success?”

The Groomed to Grow team formed the goal of helping to improve mental health of people in downtown Boise who have recently become homeless by helping them raise their self-esteem and confidence. In order to build empathy for their population, the Groomed to Grow team conducted interviews with people experiencing homelessness.

The Helping Helpers team focused on improving the mental health of health care workers throughout the Treasure Valley. When the team learned that doctors have the highest suicide rate out of any profession in the country, they chose to take action on promoting wellness for hospital workers.

Many veterans transitioning into civilian life experience a lack of direction and discouragement about their futures, but they have a desire to rediscover their values. Returning from the service can be stressful with responsibilities of civilian life like finding a job, house hunting, going back to school, and maintaining relationships.

This Design Lab team’s end user was the Idaho Suicide Prevention Hotline (ISPH). The ISPH has been a free resource for Idahoans in crisis for over six years. The problems that the team identified were the need for volunteers and the stigma around suicide and asking for help amongst youth. More specifically, ISPH came to the team with the opportunity to help with the basic foundations of a potential Youth Hotline.

High school students often face negative stigmas when seeking access to information about their sexual and reproductive health. This team set out with a goal to help decrease these stigmas and support teens in finding sexual and reproductive health information.

The Friendly Forces team worked to help improve the mental health of children in the foster care system. Friendly Forces identified one of the main traumas for kids living in foster care can be the initial removal from their homes by police officers. From this problem, Friendly Forces created the following research question, “How might we create a less traumatic experience for kids who are forcibly removed from their home and put in foster care?”