Non-profit Organization Brings Community Design Projects To The Streets Of New York

Hester Street Collaborative is a non-profit organization in New York that aims to “empower residents of underserved communities by providing them with the tools and resources necessary to have a direct impact on shaping their built environment.” Grist‘s profile of their Program Manager, Dylan House, explains how they foster an enhanced sense of community and positive neighborhood interactions.

House brings together groups of residents to brainstorm ways to improve their local public space and get them engaged in the design process. Recently, he built a cart using a repurposed bicycle trailer with the help of some colleagues. This is used as a tool for facilitating the collaboration process and includes a foldout table and multiple compartments for the different materials needed. He told Grist:

Our goal is to facilitate this conversation between the agency and the community to make the agency more responsive to community needs, and at the same time help the community understand what the process is and who the players are, and how they can have a seat at the table there when we do these sort of input gathering activities and modeling activities and design activities.

Hester Street Collaborative