spring at mOb

What has been going on at mOb recently? Read on for a quick rundown of the activity at the studio this semester.

We started off the semester with a quick design competition amongst the students to redesign the Golden Hammer Award. The Golden Hammer Awards are a recognition of excellence in neighborhood revitalization projects in the Greater Richmond Area. Learn more about the awards next week. 

The students then began working in teams on 11 projects throughout the semester. 

Last Saturday, students headed to Greensville County to clean up the site of an old Rosenwald School, the Greensville County Training School. The interdisciplinary team of students has been working on an identity for the new space, a plan for its repurposing, and a series of brochures and on site graphics to raise awareness.

Another team of students is working with the Richmond Volleyball Club to make their graphics speak to a new, younger demographics. 

The Minority AIDS Support Services group is working to create a comfortable, discrete space in their offices in Hampton, VA, where community members can get tested for HIV and feel supported and comfortable around other clients the non-profit serves. They are exploring interior design solutions for a shared waiting room space. 

A team of students is working for another semester with Brooks Diner in Northside to redesign their exterior sign and offer solutions for a patio while yet another group of students is helping to redesign the look of the Afrikana Film Festival. A smaller, yet fastidious nonetheless, student team is working with the VCU Police downtown to design spatial solutions to make the entrance to new offices on Broad St more abiding and in turn, help them fulfill their mission of becoming better neighbors in downtown Richmond. 

Stay tuned for final solutions and mark your calendars for our First Friday opening next month!

FFF: mOb + the Golden Hammer Awards

Join us on Friday, February 3rd (6:30p to 8:30p) to check out our student designers' prototypes for the Golden Hammer Awards. The past two weeks, mOb students have been tasked with redesigning the award given out at the Golden Hammer Awards, hosted this year by Historic Richmond and Storefront. See you there!

Miracle Needed

Storefront is seeking volunteers to propose a redesign the storefront of Miracles store in Church Hill. Do you have an idea for new signage, a color scheme or something to make this shop stand out?

Contact Adele (adele@storefrontrichmond.org) if you are a designer interested in this storefront improvement project.

Design plan for erosion control in Highland Park

Our neighbor in Highland Park, Ms Minor Young is in need of your landscaping and erosion engineering advice. This house has been in her family since the 1970s and is situated just at the edges of Richmond City and Henrico County. In the past year, the ravine in the backyard has begun encroaching on the house.

Storefront is seeking an architect or engineer to assist the property owner in developing a plan of action for her yard. She is also seeking a landscape architect who may aid her in identifying and replacing invasive species with new and native trees and shrubs.

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. 

Building Trust Through Understanding Cultural Identity

In my last post I explained in brief what trust building is, how important it is and what ways to approach it. I also mentioned how it can be difficult working with a community that may not trust your organization. This week in my social work practice class, we talked about how non government organizations (NGO's) often enter foreign countries with good intentions but dismiss the trauma that is present in these communities. I think the same thing happens here in America, in Richmond, when organizations enter some of the historic neighborhoods to work.

In this blog post, I would like to discuss what distrust could look like for communities that have experienced some form of collective trauma. It is my opinion, that in order to truly begin work and build trust in these communities, reconciliation must occur on some level. I am not an expert on reconciliation efforts and am in fact beginning to study it. Some organizations may not feel it is there place to be involved in reconciliation efforts. However, I would argue that at minimum each organization should enter a community with a certain sensitivity and trauma-informed knowledge. 

The below Ted Talk introduces the topic of building a resilient community through healing cultural traumas and supporting cultural identity. After you take a look at this video, I ask you consider how the residents of the community you plan to enter are connected to their environment. Ask yourself what it may have been like for them to shift their way of life around a policy decision, implementation of a program or the building of a structure across the street  from their home.

Towards the middle and end of the talk, the speaker focuses on how a community engagement was effective because it critically utilized the cultural aspects of his community. The approach was collective and bottom up. It intentionally used the skills and social capital that were present within the community. I believe those of us in the helping profession can learn a lot from focusing community engagement around culture.

Please contact me at jackie@storefrontrichmond.org or comment below to discuss further.

UPCOMING MONTHLY TOPICS:

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

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.