Places like the Downtown SLO Farmers' Market can be a lot to handle for some people but students and faculty from Cal Poly’s Experience Industry Management Department are now providing a space to accommodate those with neurodivergence
The Downtown SLO Farmers' Market brings about a loud, engaging and jam-packed evening.
“Farmers' market is a gem, everyone wants to go to the farmers' market," Cal Poly student Daniella Fernandez-Ortiz explained.
But for some it can be too much.
“It's unfortunate to see that there's some people that may turn away because it can be super overstimulating or overwhelming," Fernandez-Ortiz continued.
For the last five weeks, Cal Poly students and faculty have been helping with that, facilitating a space called the Resilience Room. It's a space that Professor Keri Schwab says helps people escape the sound.
“The point of it is that if farmers' market is an overwhelming space for you with its sights, smells, sounds, noise, people, you can pop into the resilience room and just relax for a while, recenter yourself, and then go back out and enjoy Farmers' Market," she said.
From noisy to quiet, the room is located at the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship accommodates people with neurodivergence.
“Neurodivergence s is defined as a range of things from Asperger's and autism to just sensory overwhelm," Schwab explained.
The space features low lighting, minimal noise, cozy seating, fidget tools and noise-reducing headphones, a perfect space to get away and reset.
“We let them know what the room is. They go on in and when they come out, they always come back, say 'I loved it.”
According to Schwab, 1 in 5 people have some form of neurodivergence. For Cal Poly student Elizabeth Matchie, she sees it commonly on Cal Poly’s campus.
“Even though, yes, at the end of the day, you will get through. It is a lot. It's hard," Matchie said of dealing with the pressures of schools. "I think people are starting to see that more and taking time for themselves to decompress.”
With one more Thursday left, the students are gathering qualitative data with Resilience room participants to see how well the room has worked during Farmers' market.
“I see something like this being really common in the future, whether it's like, conventions or just some small farmers' markets like this,” Cal Poly student Drew Nelson said.
Schwab tells me that their goal is to expand the resilience room to other farmers' markets and tourism events and hopes to share their research with other city and county governments in the future. The last one at SLO Farmers' Market is Thursday, May 1 from 6 to 8:30 p.m.
