Community Work
Social Catalyst
COPY ABOUT SOCIAL GOALDS ETC....BRAZENarchitecture seeks to be a social catalyst in affecting change to serve the homeless and underprivileged, and developing a process for neighborhood improvements through advocacy, community involvement through Citizen Architecture. blah blah
Maybe his copy will be written in "article" form, so maybe text with small clickable photos within the article. Maybe a few paragraphs, topics to include the CLV Corridor of Hope, Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth OUTREACH, VOLUNTEER & OPERATIONS CENTER, Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth DROP-IN CENTER TENANT IMPROVEMENTVeteran's Village, Caridad, Homeless Census, other transitional housing ideas. Will include links. All
Meadows Village
BRAZENarchitecture’s office is adjacent to the neighborhood of Meadows Village, in the past also known as Naked City, in the shadow of the Stratosphere. The neighborhood dates to the 30’s and was popular in the 50’s and 60’s for low-cost apartments for Strip employees, but the neighborhood started to decline in the 70’s and continues to this day. We, along with the City of Las Vegas, Stupak Community Center, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and Casa de Luz, are committed to helping our neighbors improve their own neighborhood by developing processes for improvement without causing negative gentrification, all based upon the needs and wants of the PEOPLE who live there.
Some of the community engagements include a Community Design Day, participation in the Stupak Community Center’s Annual Baby Showers, Food Pantry Interviews, a THINGEE with UNLV and Cardiff University students, and a successful campaign to add traffic calming devices in the neighborhoor (see timeline for more information below).
We collaborated with the City of Las Vegas Planning & Zoning Office and Casa de Luz to teach, and learn from, Meadows Village Neighborhood kids. BRAZEN developed an 8-week workshop program designed to engage kids, asking them to read, write, draw, create, and build.
Casa provided the space, while BRAZEN and City Planning provided the tutors, graphics, and model building materials. The team also included two Spanish-speaking interpreters. The workshops began with tours, walking with the kids through streets where they lived, asking them to see, hear, smell the streets and note their observations. The children collected "found objects" and created art pieces composed of these objects.
The team also led discussions, asking the kids to label maps with adjectives and discuss the worksheets describing their streets based on their experiences. 30% of the kids said they needed a community pool. And, although 70% of the kids spend most of their time at home, of those, 60% feel they have no importance at home.
The workshops culminated with a presentation to family and friends and Ward 3 Councilwoman Olivia Diaz. From the workshops and presentations, the team learned that the kids have a need for protection (police presence), and they would like access to retail shops, medical services, cultural elements, and parks within or nearby their neighborhood. These are the elements they built for their presentations and discussed with friends and families.
The workshops were so successful that the team organized and second and third series for the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021. The Spring workshops began virtually on January 25th and have since been conducted in person. Click the links on the timeline below for more information.