Healing Homes Project

Information

Website: http://www.truehome.net
Location: East Austin
Members: 12
Latest Activity: Mar 30

Designers and Mental Health Professionals Collaborate to create "Healing Homes"

We are in the early stages of a project with Community Partnership for the Homeless to develop a community revitalization pilot project that will be associated with a new low-income housing project in East Austin. This pilot project will be the first use of a unique approach to "human centered" design we have developed over the last decade. It has the support and participation of Sam Gosling, Ph.D. who won the American Psychological Association's 2008 "Distinguished Early Career Contributions to Psychology" award and Cecil Reynolds Ph.D., the author of the most frequently used behavioral testing tools used in U. S. Public Schools.

Our intention is to use our existing techniques - and by collaboration develop new approaches - that allow therapists, social workers, psychologists and others to collaborate with architects and interior designers to develop criteria for design that helps low-income families use their housing to focus their attention on life goals, including a sustainable lifestyle and well-being.

All are invited to find out more and contribute. For more information, contact me at 979-249-5961 or by e-mail at cktravis@sentientarchitecture.com.

There is an invitation only early organizational event scheduled on Monday, February 16th. If you are interested in getting involved in the early planning stages, contact me. We are particularly interested in finding people who are fluent in Spanish as many of the inhabitants of facility may not be fluent in English.

Discussion Forum

Healing Homes Discussion 4 Replies

Started by Christopher K. Travis. Last reply by Christopher K. Travis Feb 22.

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4 Comments

Comment by Christopher K. Travis on February 20, 2009 at 1:40pm: Ali,

No worries. The meeting on the 16th was for the Steering Committee for Design Voice, not an organizational meeting for the Healing Homes initiative. You have a great background for Healing Homes however, given your background in psychology.

The current state of the Healing Homes project is that only the high-level stuff is going on right now - meaning discussions with researchers at UT, setup work with possible low income sites etc.

So I have not scheduled a volunteer meeting yet because things at that level are still in flux. What I expect to do first when things are a bit more tied down is host an "introduction" for potential volunteers to explain the project, what type of opportunities will be available for participation, what type of leadership roles will need to be filled.

Once we have a group that "wants to play" I will start scheduling the training sessions associated with the design process we use, and will be adapting for use with low income residents.

They training be free, but will require some time, so I want to make sure the folks who sign up know what they are getting into and have a use for this new approach in their own work. My guess is the first training session will not happen until late March or early April - but that could change depending on events still being discussed.

If you want to contact me directly, that is fine. Use my architecture firm e-mail at cktravis@sentientarchitecture.com.

And very nice to know you, De' and the others here who have expressed interest in the Healing Homes project.

Comment by Ali Christoph on February 20, 2009 at 9:39am: Hi! I just wanted to post a message expressing my interest in getting involved with the Healing Homes Project; but I missed the February 16th Meeting. Are there more meetings coming up?
A little about me: I am currently in graduate school at UT pursuing my Masters in Urban Planning. My undergraduate degree is in Psychology and I have a minor in Business and Sociology. So, this organization and its goals sound very much up my alley! Again, I would love to get involved, so any information would be appreciated. Thank you, Ali Christoph

Comment by De` Humphries on February 18, 2009 at 10:09pm: Dear Christopher;
I am sorry to have missed the early organizational event on Monday; I do have an interest in Human Centered Design. I am a strong advocate of Eco-friendly and sustainable design; supporting design development for low-income housing and promoting families; increasing understanding of our environmental responsibilities and the families well being would be rewarding. I look forward to hearing from you with information on how I may be of assistance.
Thank you, De` Humphries

Comment by Christopher K. Travis on February 3, 2009 at 1:28pm: Another note about the Healing Homes Project. What I did not make clear is that volunteers in this project will be given free training in using the "human centered" design programming process we have developed in our firm called the Truehome Workshop. It is designed to create a systematic collaborative process in which designers and mental health professionals like therapists, social workers, life coaches and other can work together to create "therapeutic living spaces." You can learn more about it on my profile page by visiting my blog, or our websites.