WE PROVIDE community-based DESIGN AND PLANNING ASSISTANCE that inspires community members to take action, leverage their creativity, and realize a shared vision that strengthens our neighborhoods.
About Community Visioning
Community visioning is a collaborative process of giving community members who live, work, and play in a place the opportunity to share ideas about what they want their neighborhoods to be like in the future. During a time of rapid growth, Storefront understands the need to leverage the creativity within our communities who best understand the challenges that impede change in the built environment and new methods are necessary to amplify community voice.
Storefront’s Community Visioning program focuses on 1-2 projects per year. We collaborate with designers, planners, nonprofit organizations, and community members on large scale neighborhood projects. If you have an idea at a small scale, check out our Design Session program. As part of a “large session” in Design Session’s Program Menu, we offer community visioning on a more intimate level.
What does Storefront’s Community Visioning program offer?
As part of a project team, Storefront’s team and volunteer network offers advice and recommendations on community engagement strategy. We understand that every neighborhood is not the same and it’s important to develop an intentional approach to each project. We offer the following:
Collaborate with the project team to develop and finalize community engagement process and timeline.
Assist with envisioning of presentation and meeting materials for community meetings; provide supplies and materials for community meetings.
Review and provide recommendations for community meeting presentations based on knowledge of communities and processes in the City of Richmond.
Recruit volunteers for community engagement meetings as needed. Our team maintains a network of over 180 volunteer professional planners, architects, landscape architects, and designers who are available to help.
Collaborate with team members to coordinate focus groups, working groups, and stakeholder groups.
Review communications and marketing materials. Provide recommendations on webpage, social media, and marketing content based on experience in Richmond communities.
Provide a space at Storefront for Community Design’s office in downtown Richmond to display project updates and hold small group meetings as needed.
Case Study 1: Reimagining an Old Bank Building
In collaboration with community partners, Storefront led an initiative to receive feedback and ideas from residents for the new intended use of the former bank building in Richmond’s North Side. The team developed a creative digital and physical outreach plan to frame an accessible, culturally responsive community listening approach that amplified the ideas of residents.
Case Study 2: New Vision for a Neighborhood Park
Storefront assisted in exploring new ideas for the facilities at the Westover Hills park site in Richmond’s Southside. We conducted on-site visits, virtual meetings, and volunteer coordination to develop recommendations for amenity upgrades including a walking trail, dog park, skate park, pickleball courts, and a multi-use recreation field.
Current Projects
Jackson Ward community Plan
The Jackson Ward Community Plan brings Gilpin Court and Jackson Ward residents, planning experts, elected officials, and community members together to reach an informed, shared vision for the future of the neighborhood.
participatory budgeting initiative
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 neighborhood improvements. Storefront is collaborating with consultants to create a PB process engagement process for the City of Richmond.
Past Projects
Highland Grove community
The Highland Grove development in Highland Park is expanding, and we need your help! Storefront is assisting with a community visioning process to receive feedback and ideas from residents for elements in the development’s master plan that may include amenities, site features, and architectural components.
Reconnect Jackson Ward
The Virginia Office of Intermodal Planning and Investment (OIPI), in coordination with the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) and the City of Richmond, is undertaking a feasibility study to develop options to reconnect Jackson Ward, a historic African American neighborhood that has been physically and economically separated by Interstates 95 and 64 since the 1950s.
Chamberbrook Business & Arts District
The Chamberbrook Business & Arts District of Northside RVA is a grassroots effort by longtime Richmond residents, community organizers, and designers. As a recent Virginia Statewide Business District Resurgence Grant Recipient, Real Chances, Inc., is partnering with Storefront for Community Design, FORM Coalition, Hanbury, Tactile Studio and, The LIFT Group, to kick off community engagement to create a unique sense of place rooted in community and culture. Watch the kickoff community meeting.
REIMAGINING THE BANK OF AMERICA BUILDING
In late 2020, Storefront developed a creative digital and physical outreach plan that amplified the ideas that Northside residents had regarding the intended use of the former Bank of America Building in Highland Park. Data and responses were collected and presented in a final report for the Maggie Walker Community Land Trust Citizen Advisory Panel to consider in the development of a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the building.
GIVE TODAY TO SUPPORT COMMUNITY VISIONING!
We can only continue because of your generous support that makes it possible for Storefront to continue shaping Richmond by community voice, equitable design, and collaborative partnerships. Whether you have participated in previous community visioning initiatives, plan to participate in future opportunities, or have a special interest in seeking meaningful and effective ways to design WITH communities, we need your continuous support!
Past Projects Highlight:
General Devotion / General Demotion
In 2019, Storefront and mOb studio hosted a nationwide architecture competition, General Demotion/General Devotion, to consider how to re-present the history and figures monumentalized on Monument Avenue in Richmond. An exhibition of competition entries opened at the Valentine Museum on February 14, 2019 and closed December 1, 2019, providing community members the opportunity to view the finalist submissions.
Competition exhibit at the Valentine Museum (2019)
STAFF CONTACT
hello@storefrontrichmond.org