Hungry for design volunteer opportunities?

STOREFRONT IS SEEKING AN ARCHITECT/INTERIOR DESIGNER TO UPDATE A COMMERCIAL KITCHEN

This Design Session is still available

A national meal-providing non-profit has $4000 to spend to update a community kitchen. They need to transition an existing space in a warehouse into a legal commercial kitchen as well as make the space versatile for cooking demonstrations, mass canning and fermentation projects, long term bulk food storage, collective food prep space for this non-profit organization with easy clean up. 

They would like to complete this project as quickly as possible but with no specific timeline.

email Adele (adele@storefrontrichmond.org) for more information or your interest!

Richmond Trails Foundation Seeks Graphic Designer

**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.

HOW IMPORTANT ARE THE STRENGTHS? HOW IMPORTANT ARE THE NEEDS?

 

The truth is that identifying strengths is just as important as identifying needs. However, I propose that strengths should be identified first and given just as much support as needs. Let's begin to turn the term "needs assessment" on it's head. My stance is supported by the fact that many times, a community already embodies their own ability to fill the identified need despite popular opinion. Sometimes, these strengths need a little push to emerge and act. This is where outside organizations should come in. Our job is most effective when we act as conveners, liaisons and assistants of communities. Before we begin this conversation, I ask that you let the below quote sink in.

"When we do change to people, they experience it as violence, but when people do change for themselves, they experience it as liberation"-  Roseabeth M. Kanter ( Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor at Harvard Business School)

When people are able to say "I built that!" or " I organized that!" they feel empowered. For people to "do change for themselves" they must be able to tap into their own capacities. How can communities ever feel sure or become aware of their capacities if what they are lacking is getting all the attention?

The diagnosing of communities can be harmful. We should instead be encouraging a community to play to its strengths. As the speaker in the Ted Talk explained, it is not empowering to teach communities that change cannot come from within. Power must be given to communities to make decisions for themselves with the support and resources of organizations. 

But how?

Asset Based Community Development has become a burgeoning model for community work. This strengths-based approach uses an assets assessment instead of a needs assessment. Currently, Storefront is involved in a workgroup that is aimed at organizing and building capacity for new and small grassroots organizations. These organizations are focused on ending violence in their community. The below graphic explains how identifying and connecting community assets(in this case grassroots organizations) results in the identification of gaps between assets. These gaps are community needs.  In this way, community needs are able to be identified without centering our work around them. Focusing on needs can be discouraging, daunting and sometimes quite unproductive. Needs do not exist in a vacuum. They are a result of gaps within or between services.

 If we can strengthen these organizations individually and collectively then they can become more equipped to close need gaps. This process also trims down a lot of work that would have involved finding assets, services and building trust. 

I challenge you to become more strengths based in your approach to community work. I dare you to believe that each community has at least one asset that can be used. 

If you'd like to chat more please comment below or email me at jackie@storefrontrichmond.org

Upcoming Topics:

WHAT IS AN INTERVENTION WITHOUT COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT?

Examining why community engagement is the basis for an effective intervention

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF IT WORKED?

A summary of ways to evaluate community interventions and practice.

mObjOb8 Round-Up

mObjOb8 ended on Friday with an exhibition, a bridge, and a poster from each of the six teams. The Middle of Broad students (mObians) each suited up for the evening after a long night of model-making. Solutions across the interstate included a hill and vaulted ceiling, housing to replace the housing demolished by the infrastructure, and an amphitheater complete with a goldfish.

mObjOb8

Get ready for mObjOb8 happening all next week !!!

Students are imagining and modeling bridge concepts that heal the geographic, socioeconomic, and racial injustice of Interstate-95 running through Jackson Ward.

More discussions, solutions, and models to come throughout next week. 6 teams of students will work on a unique spanning proposal, culminating in an awarding of the mOb cup and a grand opening on November 4th, November First Friday in the Arts District. 

Improving Tummy Time: Designers Needed!

Can you help make play time portable and parent friendly?

The VCU Department of Physical Therapy is working on developing an innovative rehabilitation device that could be used in the home, therapy clinics and even daycares, to encourage infants to work on their prone motor abilities. However, there is a need to re-design the center to be more family friendly and portable.

This project is so important because the development of gross motor skills is vital to an infants development. The Department of Physical Therapy's new design encourages infants to participate in tummy time longer than current market play centers.

If you are a designer that would like to engage in the re-design please contact us at hello@storefrontrichmond.org!

Jackson Ward Community Garden Seeks Assistance

A year and a half ago in her Jackson Ward apartment, Jourdan James began dreaming about how to access more green garden space in her neighborhood. Now she is applying for non-profit status and furthering her plans for turning the triangular plot of land at 620 Chamberlayne Parkway into a community garden and educational space. 

The plot is uniquely situated at a major gateway to the neighborhood, which sets it up to be a verdant usher into the neighborhood.

She is seeking assistance with a landscape plan of the 8,200 sq. ft. space, using approximately 4,000 sq. ft. for 12 raised bed gardens and the remaining space for storage, education, bee-keeping and leisure. The Jackson Ward Community Garden will be a space to learn about native flowers and vegetables as well as sustainable gardening practices. Some concerns she faces already include water access, fencing, and accessibility to all neighborhood residents. She also has plans for an updatable mural site for the dreary winter months.  

For those who are interested, the scope of this work requires about 2 to 6 hours of your time. The deliverables are a site-plan and elevation rendering due by the end of October to help this forming non-profit raise funds and share their ideas for community green space and sustainability education.

mOb Design Session Fall 2016

We are excited for our fall semester's worth of design session projects. Read about them below!

ON THE STREET

A Sign of the Times

Use the frame of the "Stonestreet Diamond" sign on 209 East Broad Street to create a new sign for Walter and Urban Corps new development. "The sign doesn't have to/need to say anything, it should just be a sign of the times and fit in the existing frame." Walter Parks' vacant lot near the intersection of Foushee and Broad Streets is also available for improvement or action.  There is a budget for improvements at both locations TBD based on proposals presented to Walter and his team.

Orleans Street

Transform Orleans Street into a 'great street' through a series of mOb-style interventions. The final terminal of the new Bus Rapid Transit System (completion scheduled for October 2017) will be located at Rockett's Landing. Orleans Street connects the community of the Greater Fulton Neighborhood to this high-speed transportation hub. The street requires urban / streetscape designs to transfigure the barren street into a more abiding space for pedestrians and neighbors.

• Find out more about the BRT here

VCU Honors College

The Honors College is looking to create a bolder profile by creating an unusual and inventive physical presence with their building. Work within their existing public spaces to create a striking and innovative connection between the street and the college. All elements of the building and public spaces are fair game.

FI Sky

Redesign an ignored outdoor courtyard space with FI Sky, a program that implements innovation for traditional classrooms. The site is on the southern side of Grace Harris Hall on West Main and Harrison. This project includes but is not limited to landscaping, plant selection, and educational spatial design. 

IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Brooks Diner

Revamp the identity of an existing restaurant that is a beloved community gathering place. They will need interior design solutions but also are looking to expand and enliven their outdoor spaces through landscaping or an exterior dining area.

• Learn more about the Diner here

HI Richmond Hostel

HI Richmond Hostel is about a year old, and functions as both affordable overnight lodging and as a community center. HI Richmond is located in the old Otis Elevator Company building, which has also been used as a women’s prison from about 1980-1999. 

Currently, the basement is unfinished, somewhat of an informal storage area, and not zoned for permanent use. However, the basement does get traffic: they have hosted wilderness medical training classes down there, community theater and comedy groups use it regularly as a rehearsal space, and they sometimes hold larger meetings down there. 

They are looking for ways to activate and improve their basement in ways that both reference their building’s history, benefit the Richmond community, and speak to their larger organization’s mission (fostering a more tolerant world through travel).

• Check out the Hostel here

Neighborhood Assistance Officers

Rebrand the identity—uniforms, logos, badges, perhaps even the name—of the Neighborhood Assistance Officers. These officers are non-sworn, civilian, unpaid volunteers who provide critical support in varying capacities to the Richmond Police Department.

• Check out the NAO program here
• Check out the current uniforms here

RECOVERY & CONSERVATION

Richmond Behavioral Health Authority

Design sewn products using the research Kerrie and Cassandra have done over the past six months with hand-rolled custom fabric. This project will also require organizing workshops and further research.

• An article on Design Ignites Change about the program, Recovery by Design.
• Example of an outcome from last semester.

Giving to Extremes Medical Missions

Develop the visual identity for Giving to Extremes Medical Missions for their public media presence: professional and promotional materials across print and social media platforms. GTE is a group of physicians who conduct surgical missions in Central America, as well as train local doctors. They are a relatively new organization and don't have any visual collateral yet. 

• Check them out here.

Clean City Commission

Develop a grassroots litter prevention campaign for Richmond. The campaign will focus on two areas, both North and South: Highland Park and along Reedy Creek. This project will focus on one of these areas and encourages innovative, active, and whimsical (read: non-slogan) solutions. 

Storefront to open youth-led collaborative in Highland Park

A bright light is on in a row of empty storefronts in the Highland Park neighborhood. It’s a Wednesday evening and a group of high schoolers are hovering around a table with markers, tracing paper, and floor plans of the 3000-square-foot space on Meadowbridge Road. Architect and Storefront board member Allison Powell hands a marker to one of these students, who elaborates on an idea for punctuating the cavernous space with bright colors and vertical text on the pillars. Another student chimes in with an idea to fill the parking lot with hammocks for reading. Everybody agrees on one thing: don’t build any walls here.

Potential location of the Six Points Innovation Center (6PIC) in the Highland Park neighborhood, the 3000 block of Meadowbridge Road.

This is a snapshot of the early phase of renovation for the 6 Points Innovation Center (6PIC), Storefront’s newest initiative supported by the Robins Foundation. Storefront will partner with Groundwork RVA, Saving Our Youth Virginia, Boaz & Ruth, and other organizations to create a new space for after school programming that operates at the intersection of design education and community engagement. Participants will enter the 6PIC as agents of change, and set the agenda for the community through design, planning, and organizing strategies. To start, the founding 6PIC team has been working closely with our team of architects to develop a conceptual design for the space.

Concept rendered by architect Burt Pinnock, based on sketches from the founding 6PIC team.

To make 6PIC a reality while sustaining our location in the Arts & Cultural District, we need your support. If it’s $500 or even $5, your donation is an investment in the ability for young people to connect more fully with urban planning and design. Storefront believes that design is not a luxury. Everyone should be able to realize the potential of the city — from the front porch, to the back yard, to the sidewalk, to the neighborhood.

Farmstrong Seeks Assistance with Shed Conversion

This volunteer opportunity has been filled as of April 14, 2016. Stay tuned!

Can Storefront help the Green Team plan a rehabilitation of the shed that would be useful and inspire pride to Armstrong’s farmers?

Farmstrong is an agricultural site in the east end located at 2300 Cool Lane on a property that is privately owned, and serves the community of Armstrong High School, which is located directly to the east of the site.

The site is currently not producing crops, but by spring will have a variety of produce, flowers, and cover crop.  The Armstrong Green Team are the primary caretakers of the Farmstrong site.  The Green Team, composed of 12 high school students who primarily live in the neighborhood of north Church Hill, Creighton Court, Mosby Court, and Fairfield Court, been working on the site for one year.

On the site sits a shed, which was once a refrigeration unit for a flower vendor on Cool Lane.  The shed is functional as a storage area for tools, however, it needs help.  It is dark, has the appearance of being full of spiders, and is not the proud shed that the Green Team aspires to use.