Storefront for Community Design is honored to be awarded the 2022 Architecture Medal for Virginia Service. As the AIA Virginia’s most prestigious public award, the Architecture Medal for Virginia Service honors an individual or organization that has made an unusually significant contribution to Virginia's built environment or to our understanding and awareness of the built environment. Strorefront for Community Design will be celebrated at Visions for Architecture on Friday, Nov. 4, 2022, at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond.
SFCD Welcomes New Board Members!
Storefront is excited to announce the addition of 4 new Board of Directors, Tyler Silvestro, Geoffrey Zindren, Stephanie Golembeski, and Jillian Bates! With new leadership and the creation of a new 3-year strategic plan, we are pleased to continue building a board that reflects our mission.
Update: Participatory Budgeting Initiative Kicks Off this Fall
Participatory Budgeting (PB) is a new paradigm providing an avenue for community members to engage in a democratic process that gives residents direct access to their tax dollars and allows them to guide where that money will go.
In October 2019, Richmond City Council passed a resolution calling on the city’s administration to set aside money each year for the initiative. It outlined a process for participatory budgeting in the City, but due to COVID-19, the initiative was put on hold. In 2021, the initiative has picked up steam and Storefront for Community Design has joined a team of community collaborators to convene, develop, and implement the process in Richmond. PB can be a complicated process to understand, so we encourage you to keep reading to learn more about PB, how it is being implemented in Richmond, and ways to get involved.
2022 Golden Hammer Awards Call for Submissions Now Open
Storefront for Community Design and Historic Richmond will partner for a sixth year to host the awards program to recognize professionals and community members improving our neighborhoods.
Do you have a project that was completed after January 1, 2021? Submit your project by September 12 at 11:59pm to be in the running for a Golden Hammer Award!
About the Golden Hammer Awards
The Golden Hammer Awards were started in 2000 with a goal of honoring excellence in neighborhood revitalization projects throughout Greater Richmond. This year's award event will take place on Thursday, October 27 from 6-8pm at Hardywood Richmond!
Categories include:
Best Restoration: Includes restoration by a homeowner, contractor, or developer. Includes historic tax credit projects.
Best Adaptive Reuse: Includes projects that were rehabilitated for a new use, multi-family residential, and historic tax credit projects welcome.
Best New Construction: Includes neighborhood infill.
Best Placemaking & Urban Design: Arts and culture projects, park and green-space projects, transportation and infrastructure projects, or other neighborhood enhancing features including large scale (i.e., parks, urban streetscapes, etc.) and small scale (i.e., community garden, grass roots programming, etc.).
Best Residential: Single-family residential projects.
Sponsorship Opportunities!
Annual support for our organization, programming, projects, and events is critical. Interested in becoming a sponsor for the Golden Hammer Awards? Check out our sponsorship benefits and opportunities for more information.
Storefront Celebrates 10 Years with Exhibition
On May 6, under stormy skies, Storefront for Community Design hosted a block party at 205 E Broad Street and was honored to see so many supporters show up to celebrate! Guests enjoyed food truck fare, music, desserts, t-shirts, great conversations, and the unveiling of our 10 Years, 10 Stories of Impact Exhibition. Thank you to Baskervill, our exhibition sponsor, along with our other event sponsors: Singlestone, Century Construction Company, Inc., Gilbane, Lynx Ventures, Timmons Group, Hanbury, and Anova.
It has been amazing to see the impact that Storefront has made across Richmond. Thank you to the Founders of Storefront and VUCarts Middle of Broad (mOb) studio for taking your initial visions and evolving them over the last ten years. Richmonds is growing rapidly, and our work is now more important than ever. With a new strategic plan, we are poised to inspire equitable community-driven design and engage the next generation of designers.
If you were unable to make the block party celebration, don’t fret! The 10 Years, 10 Stories of Impact exhibition will be up through September. Stop by during the next RVA First Friday to check it out. Also, we still have t-shirts for sale so get one while you can! Also, learn more by downloading the 10th Anniversary Celebration Event Program and check out the photos below highlighting a wonderful evening with friends of Storefront.
Summer 2022 Volunteer Opportunities
Are you passionate about community voice, equitable design, and collaborative partnerships? We are seeking volunteers with varying interests and expertise to help us this summer, so don’t be bashful to get involved! Upcoming opportunities include:
Design Education - City Builders Design: Help us build the new curriculum for our City Builders fall 2022 and spring 2023 semester.
Community Visioning: Help us plan, design, and host small engagement events in Jackson Ward.
Design Session: Provide one-on-one advice, conceptual sketches, and plans of actions throughout the year.
See below for more information. If you are interested in volunteering, be sure to sign up by Friday, May 27. If you have any questions, please email hello@storefrontrichmond.org. We look forward to hearing from you!
Join Storefront’s Advisory Council: Nomination form now open
Storefront for Community Design’s Advisory Council is a group of enthusiastic community members who are passionate about community voice, equitable design, and collaborative partnerships. This is a newly forming group that will supplement the Storefront team and board’s skills and help advocate for Storefront’s mission. The Advisory Council is also a great steppingstone for non-profit board service.
The nomination form is now open for the Advisory Council and will close on May 27, 2022 at 12:00pm. Review of applications and selection of members will take place in June. The first meeting will take place in July.
The Advisory Council’s purpose:
Provide technical expertise or advice in areas such as youth education, design education, architecture and planning, finance, fundraising, community building, event planning, advocacy, etc.
Help to spearhead and/or fundraise for a special project or event
Provide an independent sounding board for the Board of Directors
Serve as an advocate for the organization
The Advisory Council will include up to eight (8) community members and will meet quarterly (min. 4 times per year; 2 hr. meetings). Members of the Advisory Council are also encouraged to attend board meetings or join a committee if interested. Committees include communications, finance, development, and programs. If you have questions, contact us.
Save the Date for #storefrontcelebrates
We’re throwing a party and YOU are invited!
There will be food, music (inside and out), other First Friday happenings, and of course—let there be cake! Mark your calendar, you don't want to miss it. Do your friends a favor and share the invitation using #storefrontcelebrates so they can be part of the fun.
Join us for the festivities on May 6 from 5:30-9:00pm at 205 E. Broad Street.
SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
Thank you to our current 10th Anniversary sponsors! Your sponsorship is making a difference in our community. There's still time to become a sponsor. Click below for sponsorship benefits and opportunities.
Recapping Our Fall City Builders Design Workshop; Spring Registration Now Open
Did you know that a well-designed place enhances your health?
Storefront for Community Design is excited to launch our City Builders Design Workshop this spring. We are seeking youth and young adults ages 13 -18 who are inspired by real world projects that make positive change in their neighborhoods. Come research, discover, and design resources with us this spring!
Are you inspired by design and creativity?
Are you passionate about health and wellness?
Are you interested in innovative ways to create change in your community?
Become A City Builder!
Want to learn more about Storefront’s Design Education?
Learn more about our Fall ‘21 Session on Food Access
When the pandemic began, Storefront for Community Design and community partners at Six Points Innovation Center (6PIC) pivoted programming to virtual school and distributing and delivering food to it’s youth residents in the City of Richmond. Due to public school closures many students were learning virtually from home which also meant youth were eating at home rather than at school. Storefront partnered with Richmond Public Schools to make 6PIC a hub for families to make it more accessible for our youth and their families to receive pertinent school information and resources. During this time many families and youth became more aware of the limited access to healthy food in the city.
In September of 2021, schools reopened and not even a month after … Richmond we have a problem. Parents expressed their concerns about the school meals being provided to their students. The Richmond Times Dispatch reported that parents weren’t happy with the meals provided to their students and petitioned the school board to find out what was going on. At the same time our Youth Innovation Director, Kai Banks, was preparing to restart the City Builders Design program, heard the concerns from teachers and parents and thought, “what about our students?”
“I wanted to know what our students were experiencing, teach them more about how the school and food system worked, and empower them to think creatively and design solutions. Fresh off of working in the community around food access concerns in general it seemed only right to focus our attention on food access in our community.”
Residential Security Map, Visit To City Hall’s Observatory Deck
With Kai’s knowledge of the history of Richmond and redlining, she understood the results that it had created, food deserts. According to the Richmond 300 insights report, food deserts are areas in which there is a lack of fresh and healthy food options within a reasonable, convenient distance. Normally, these food deserts are full of fast food restaurants and convenience-type stores but are lacking grocery stores or supermarkets. Some typical methods traditionally used to try and eliminate these deserts are: improvements to the business climate, more participation in WIC(Women, Infants, and Children) or SNAP(Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) programs, increased public transit in order to take people to the food, increased education about healthy food choices in public schools, and partnering with nonprofits to affect policy change at a state or federal level.
The City Builders Design program is designed to teach youth residents about urban planning and design. It is used to educate them on how cities work and plan for the future, while looking at historical events that created the conditions that cities are today. At the end of the program, youth work together to design a solution to the challenges that they feel is impacting their communities.
Breathing Places Exhibit At The Valentine Museum
The semester began in October with an observation and discovery period. During this period students conducted a community planning analysis for the Northside, visited urban gardens and food locations in the area, and surveyed community members. Their findings revealed that 3 out 5 students did not have access to transportation. They also discovered that there weren’t any major grocery stores within a 5 mile radius of 6PIC. The students also discussed school lunches and their own likes and dislikes.
The second half of the semester students learned from experts in their prospective fields around land use, policy, and urban planning. The speakers ranged from Ebony Walden, an urban planner, Richmond Food Justice Alliance, a community organization, and Maggie Walker Community Land Trust, a housing non-profit in the city. City Builders’ participants went on a field trip to the Valentine Museum and City Hall observation deck to learn more about the historical context of green spaces and other development in the city of Richmond. Lastly, the students had an opportunity to visit VCUart’s mOb studio students and engage in the design process.
City Builders Design Concept for Northside Healthy Food Map
In the final weeks, City Builders’ participants collaborated with a design professional to create a vision for a North Side food access map for residents to be able to locate urban gardens, smaller markets/stores that provided healthy food access, and community pantries in the area. By the end of the semester they learned that the school's meal selection had some to do with nutrition and a lot to do with policies on the state level. One of the students even expressed she was ready to speak with the Virginia Department of Education to advocate for meals in schools!
Are you a designer interested in helping our City Builders create a final version of their map? Please feel free to email hello@storefrontrichmond.org.
About City Builders Design Workshop
The vision of the City Builders program is to engage the next generation of designers and grow urban youth leaders and equip youth for career success, civic engagement, and creative expression. The program focuses on real world projects in the built environment and encourages youth ages 13-18 to research, discover, and design resources for community members across Richmond. City Builders advances civic power through place-making projects and neighborhood-based skill building in program areas.
Spring 2022 Volunteer Opportunities
Storefront provides ongoing volunteer opportunities in our low-cost design and planning assistance programs and design education programs. We are seeking residents and professionals who are passionate about community voice, equitable design, and collaborative partnerships. Check out our upcoming volunteer opportunities below.
Design Education - City Builders Design: Help us develop the design education curriculum and/or participate in our spring youth semester program.
Community Engagement and Events: Become liaisons for engagement initiatives and/or help us plan our 10th Anniversary community celebration.
Design Session: Provide one-on-one advice, conceptual sketches, and plans of actions throughout the year.
See below for more information. We are looking for volunteers with varying interests and expertise, so don’t be bashful to get involved! If you are interested in volunteering, be sure to complete the form specific to each opportunity by January 27, 2022. If you have any questions, please email hello@storefrontrichmond.org. We look forward to hearing from you!