Minneapolis office hosts 5th Community Design Workshop to benefit five local nonprofits.
Celebrating its’ fifth year, the HGA Minneapolis Community Design Workshop has provided over 1,000 hours of design, engineering, and marketing services to a variety of organizations.
HGA’s Minneapolis office hosted a two-day design workshop offering a variety of services to local nonprofit organizations on October 10 and 11. Nonprofits were invited to apply to take part earlier in the year with five organizations being selected to take part in the workshop. Teams of design professionals from the Minneapolis and Rochester offices were paired with each organization based on expertise and the nonprofit’s needs. Prior to the workshop, teams learned about the challenges their organization faced, were able to participate in site tours, and met to discuss plans.
The workshop started with a kick-off evening reception on October 10 allowing participants time to mingle, meet their teams, and prep for a full day of collaborative design. The full day of design and presentations took place the following day with hands-on work with the organizations in the first half of the day, and focused design efforts after lunch. The day wrapped up with presentations for each of the organizations to showcase the final work. Organizations receive final documentation and designs after the workshop, often including cost models that are essential to support the organizations’ fundraising efforts.
The five nonprofits selected were:
The Amherst H. Wilder Foundation works with people in St. Paul and the East Metro to break down barriers that keep individuals and families from living fulfilling and dignified lives. This mission is fulfilled by serving children and families in St. Paul and the greater Twin Cities East Metro through research, community engagement, leadership development, and over 40 direct service programs.
East Metro Civic Alliance‘s vision is to be the catalyst for policies, programs, and innovative collaborations working to expand multi-cultural understanding, socioeconomic development, and poverty eradication in Ramsey, Washington, and Dakota Counties. Their mission is to ensure equal opportunity for all so to sustain the East Metro Twin Cities as the best place to live, work and socialize in Minnesota.
HIRED was created to build a pathway for previously incarcerated individuals to gain employment, economic stability and avoid recidivism. Today, their objective is to increase economic equity for all individuals in the Twin Cities and empower marginalized populations to receive the education and job training they need to build sustainable wealth, long-term employment, and to create a thriving community.
Keystone Community Services serves over 30,000 people annually at seven neighborhood locations in St. Paul, including their youth social enterprise, Express Bike Shop. The shop has been a successful youth social enterprise for almost 25 years. At Express Bike Shop, low-income teens take donated bikes, previously sitting idle in garages or fated for the scrap yard and return them to productive service in a retail environment that is both a full-service bike shop and a learning lab for teaching entrepreneurship.
Leonardo’s Basement is a one-of-a-kind creative learning environment for “kids” of all ages to design and build from their imagination. They provide year-round, inventive workshop classes to help people of all backgrounds and ages apply the powers of imagination, curiosity, problem solving, and risk taking to create engineering, art, and technology projects.
Scroll through the design concepts below.
