[10 Years, 10 Stories of Impact series]
It all began with a serendipitous ask for a gallery space to host the Annual Art of Recovery Art Show as part of National Recovery Month. The stars aligned when Laura Minnick, Coordinator of Consumer and Family Affairs at Richmond Behavioral Health Authority (RBHA), was attending a Board meeting where a colleague mentioned Storefront for Community Design as a potential location to hold the next art exhibit. RBHA reached out to Storefront and a partnership would soon blossom that not only included a one-time art exhibit, but an eight-week summer session for adults with lived experience of mental illness and/or substance use disorder.
Storefront collaborated with the faculty of the mOb studio and RBHA to write two successive National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grants that would provide funding to plan, host, and facilitate multiple summer sessions. In March 2014, the journey of discovery and healing began for each of the 43 participants involved in the program.
“What a dream! Recovery by Design is a highlight of my career in behavioral health. I believe so much in the arts and when we involve people in other things outside of a typical doctor’s visit, they heal. I saw this happen with this partnership — people blossomed. ”
image: Participants created raw and beautiful visual art
The mOb studio faculty, grads, and students designed the curriculum, organized the supplies, space, and sessions, recorded and led sessions, and created a final publication. “As an individual, I volunteered to create one session of content for each summer program and to teach that session along with numerous volunteers from RBHA, Storefront, and students from the mOb studio,” said Kristin Caskey, Associate Professor in VCUarts Department of Fashion Design + Merchandising, “these were not workshops with one person standing in front of a room, but rather individuals working side by side, having conversations, and following participants’ leads as they made work that communicated their voice.”
One major goal of Recovery by Design was to destigmatize mental illness and substance abuse disorders. By using design and design processes, partners were able to co-create work that was later exhibited to the public, published, and through the process, become friends with some of the participants. Partners and students in the mOb studio were deeply invested and witnessed the power of design as part of the healing process. They saw that a simple task of putting brushes in hands, breaking down barriers, and simultaneously sharing stories and thoughts with those once thought as strangers, would create a collection of special drawings that can be easily flipped into impactful solutions.
One solution can be found on Second Street in downtown Richmond. Kerry Harlow and Miranda Leung, VCU students at the time, were inspired by the art created in the Recovery by Design program. They took the initiative to design and oversee the installation of a billboard that would soon show the work of past participants and provide information for those community members looking for a path to recovery.
image: Students from the mOb studio pose in front of the RBHA billboard designed by participants and mOb students.
Words cannot capture the deep appreciation that we feel towards everyone who participated in this project. Thank you one and all, and especially to our friends in recovery. You are all champions. We thank you for your courage, determination, and the hope that you are spreading to others. We look forward to future partnerships with Storefront for Community Design and the mOb studio! It is our dream to share our experience and the knowledge that recovery does happen.
— Laura Minnick, Richmond Behavioral Health Authority
WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!
We can only continue because of your generous support that makes it possible for Storefront to create impactful and consistent programming like Recovery by Design. In honor of our 10th anniversary and to ensure future funding, we are laying the foundation for the next 10 years of community impact. Money raised will be invested in a variety of ways that, taken together, are designed to increase Storefront's mission and programming that will bring positive change to Richmond communities over the next 10 years.
10 YEARS, 10 STORIES OF IMPACT
Follow Storefront for Community Design’s 10 Years, 10 Stories of Impact series to learn more about our impact over the last ten years and check out a timeline of milestones for an overview of our work.
01 | Storefront is Born
02 | Ms. Thompson’s Kitchen
03 | mOb + Storefront = ❤️
04 | Recovery by Design
05 | A Celebration of Community Design
06 | Designing an Innovation Center
07 | Building a Brave Space
08 | General Demotion / General Devotion
09 | Community Driven Design Process
10 | A Vision for the Future