News
Storefront for Community Design
Storefront Launches Roadmap for 3-year Plan

In May 2022, Storefront for Community Design announced a bold, new vision and a three-year strategic plan. We will firmly focus on transforming our low-cost design and planning assistance programs and expanding our design education programs to inspire community-driven design in the built environment.

This is a living, breathing plan that we will continue revisiting over the months and years ahead. Since kickstarting our plan in July, we've been building an intentional roadmap that prioritizes actions and creates measurable goals. We are excited to share it and begin collaborating with you as we continue to realize our vision.

Storefront Launches Roadmap for 3-year Plan
Community Design Archive, News, Impact Stories
Storefront for Community Design
Storefront Celebrates 10th Anniversary

Each year, Valentine’s Day reminds us to purposefully demonstrate love, care, and support for our families, friends, and communities. This year’s holiday also marks Storefront for Community Design’s 10th anniversary and we want to shout a huge THANK YOU for your support in making our first ten years a success.

Since the beginning, we set out to make design accessible to all “for the love of our city.” Through partnerships and community collaborations, we continue to discover new ways of seeking Richmond's physical and social transformation through design and community voice. After an incredible ten years, we remain humble, yet excited for the possibilities that lie ahead for our organization, partners, and neighbors.

Our Board of Directors, staff, and partners are excited to celebrate this milestone anniversary throughout the year, so stay tuned for ways to get involved. To kickstart our celebration, here’s a few ways you can show your support today.

  • Donate to Storefront to support our next ten years

  • Volunteer as a Session Designer

  • Share our story with your network

Whether you’ve been with Storefront from the beginning or just a short time, we wanted to celebrate our anniversary with a look back over the last ten years. Enjoy the memories and accomplishments of our community and we look forward to making many more with you in the coming years. Now, it’s time to celebrate!

Storefront Celebrates 10th Anniversary
News
Storefront for Community Design
Storefront Welcomes New Executive Director and ...

Storefront for Community Design is excited to announce the selection of Shawn Balon as its new Executive Director.

Shawn brings a wealth of experience in design, non-profit, and educational environments with expanded knowledge of organizational management and strategic planning. He has the strategic vision necessary to elevate Storefront for Community Design and its programs in the years to come and will bring a creative, innovative, and collaborative approach when working with staff, board members, donors, partners, volunteers, and the community-at-large.

“I appreciate the board’s confidence in me, and I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to lead such a great organization. It will take innovative and purposeful solutions to create a path for Storefront for Community Design to continue addressing the challenges in our communities, and I look forward to advancing my efforts to focus on the importance of participatory design to honor differences, challenge injustices, and create vibrant neighborhoods,” said Balon.

News, Programs & Projects
Storefront for Community Design
Richmond Magazine: Designs Within Reach

We recently got to share a few projects at mOb studio + Storefront for Community Design with Richmond Magazine and how it all got started. Read the full interview by Taylor Peterson published on Feb 7, 2020.

“Design provides a vision rather than a … volatile position.” —Camden Whitehead, co-founder, Mob Studio

Richmond Magazine: Designs Within Reach

Research

How do we justly enter communities?

My name is Jacqulyn Washington but most people call me Jackie. As a graduate student of social work, I am focusing on community engagement, revitalization and resilience. Here at Storefront for Community Design, I am researching  how to justly enter communities.  This topic is so relevant to us all because we all enter communities in some way. In just one day, I pass through 3 neighborhoods. Think about which communities you drive through on your way home.  Have you ever thought about what impact you have or don’t have in those communities? What about your own community? How does your job or school intersect with surrounding neighborhoods?

 

I am not only researching how to justly enter communities by reading peer-reviewed articles and textbooks but I am researching in a truly active way. I am learning though meeting, talking, partnering and participating in communities. Over the next 5 months, I will be sharing this journey with you through updates on Storefront’s blog. The thoughts posted here will be an expression of my academic, professional and personal knowledge relevant to community work. I invite you to use this blog series as an interactive way for us to have a community conversation on ways to justly enter communities. Each month a new question will be presented followed by weekly posts on related topics. These can be found below.

Please leave a comment below on what justly entering a community means to you!

 

What's Next:

1. How do we know it’s okay to come in?

An overview of things to be considered before entering and how to recognize the “nod of approval” from the community

2. What does trust have to do with it?

Building rapport and taking care of relationships

3.How important are the strengths? How important are the needs?

Understanding why recognizing resiliency is just as important as identifying the problems when assessing a community

4.What is an intervention without community engagement?

Examining why community engagement is the basis for an effective intervention

5.How do you know if it worked?

A summary of ways to evaluate community interventions and practice.

 

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