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.
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 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.
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
This semester, Storefront is running a series of monthly workshops for youth at the Six Points Innovation Center (6PIC). Youth will learn design skills tailored to the needs of the space and themselves. Last night we learned how to stitch together notebooks and wrote messages to our future selves. The schedule for upcoming months includes:
February: Furniture Design
March: T-shirt Making Workshop
April: Typography Workshop
May: Logo Workshop
**VOLUNTEER ASSIGNED**
The Richmond Trails Foundation is an organization that is dedicated to planning, developing, and maintaining Richmond's trails and greenways with the belief that "a robust trail network has been proven to improve the economic vitality of an area as well as the the health and well-being of the community." They are stewards of both natural and paved trail in the Richmond region. The RTF works with regional Parks and Rec Departments as well as other local organizations and hopes to fill in the gaps in support that these organizations need.
They are looking for a new identity: something simple, powerful, that communicates a love for trails and the access to fun, relaxation, and adventure that they provide. The design should consider a range of applications from web, print, apparel, stickers, etc.
For those designers interested, Storefront asks for 2 to 6 hours of your time to dedicate to this identity project. Help this trail stewardship organization develop a finalized design before May 2017!
Please contact Adele (adele@storefrontrichmond.org) with your interest.
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Note: to sign up to volunteer, follow this link to complete the form.
