Navigation Networks

*The need:* Resources exist but systems are too complex to access.

Resources exist (food assistance, healthcare, housing help) but people cannot access them because the systems are too complex and the barriers too high. This recipe creates human bridges: instead of handing out phone numbers or websites, it builds networks of neighbors who have successfully navigated these systems and will literally walk others through the process, documenting every barrier and workaround and organizing to remove the systemic ones. Lived experience matters more than professional credentials, and the work is made celebratory rather than clinical.

How it works

1. Find people who have successfully navigated systems; they are your experts.
2. Pay them as navigators.
3. When someone needs help, a navigator physically goes with them.
4. Document every barrier and every workaround.
5. Share what works across the network.
6. When you find systemic barriers, organize to remove them, including publishing better guidance than currently exists.

Ingredients

• 5-10 people who've navigated systems
• a way to reach out (text/WhatsApp/office hours)
• transport money or drivers
• sympathetic insiders
• a shared tracking doc

Minimum resources: Navigator stipends unless volunteer.

You'll know it's working when

• unused resources get used
• agencies ask navigators how to simplify
• helped people become navigators

Field tips

• lived experience over credentials
• build insider relationships
• make it celebratory

Building from (real projects)

• Community Help Desk
• FYLPRO COVID-19 Task Force
• Up the Block
• Zinester's Guide

Details

• size: meal
• patterns: reimagining_public_resources, building_civic_muscle
• civic need: agency.livelihood, wellbeing.safety, belonging.context
• field tips: lived experience over credentials, build insider relationships, make it celebratory
• source tag: CB
• timeliness: evergreen
• ingredients: 5-10 people who've navigated systems, a way to reach out (text/WhatsApp/office hours), transport money or drivers, sympathetic insiders, a shared tracking doc
• source note: From the Civic Media Cookbook: 'Producing Civic Media: Recipes to Produce Civic Media Through Participation, Power and Community' — Jihii Jolly and Jennifer Brandel, with the News Futures Working Group (2026).
• how it works: Find people who have successfully navigated systems; they are your experts., Pay them as navigators., When someone needs help, a navigator physically goes with them., Document every barrier and every workaround., Share what works across the network., When you find systemic barriers, organize to remove them, including publishing better guidance than currently exists.
• building from: Community Help Desk, FYLPRO COVID-19 Task Force, Up the Block, Zinester's Guide
• min resources: Navigator stipends unless volunteer.
• need it meets: Resources exist but systems are too complex to access.
• practice kind: recipe
• success signals: unused resources get used, agencies ask navigators how to simplify, helped people become navigators
• charter alignment: information_equity, news_as_care, hierarchy_of_needs
• participatory nature: collective_care, collective_action
• conceptual ingredients: reciprocity, trust