Project Spotlight: School Based Health Centers

This is the story of two SBHCs, both in existing spaces at both Lowell Elementary and NOVA at Mann High School, to replace temporary centers that Schemata had also designed. Both SBHCs expand the services offered to students, their families, and faculty.

The Lowell Elementary SHBC

The Lowell SHBC is the direct outcome of outreach to the school administration and PTA to see how our Capitol Hill EcoDistrict (CHED) Steering Committee (SC) could best advocate and make a positive difference in the lives or the students and their families at the school. The concept of an EcoDistrict is a comprehensive approach to addressing Equity, Resilience, and Climate Protection, and the Capitol Hill neighborhood we call home was certified under this rigorous protocol in 2022. For the Lowell SBHC, the SC invited PTA and school leadership to share their challenges, eventually leading to connecting the school with funders, operators, and the Seattle School District to coordinate this effort. Schemata Workshop provided initial conceptual design and cost estimating which led to an RFP issued by the District, and were selected in a competitive qualifications and interview process.

This past year, we collaborated closely with Community Roots Housing, Country Doctor Community Health Centers and Odessa Brown Clinic to renovate existing classroom space at Lowell ES, and a separate project to build-out a permanent SBHC at NOVA at Mann HS.

At Lowell Elementary, we collaborated with Community Roots Housing to define the program scope, develop concept designs, and perform a feasibility analysis. The design was inspired by Lowell Elementary School’s values and culture of inclusivity, and includes a reception area, a large meeting room, and two examination rooms, as well as spaces delegated to healthcare providers and the social work professionals. This expanded SBHC provides students, their families and faculty easy access to affordable, conveniently located health care providers. The center also provides translation services for patients for whom English is their second language.

NOVA@Mann High School SBHC

Schemata designed both the temporary space, and the permanent  Nova Wellness Center at NOVA@Mann HS with a program similar to the Lowell SBHC, but customized based on input from students and faculty. The NOVA SBHC includes a reception area, multiple office spaces, examination rooms,  blood draw & Lab, and a group therapy room and resting space.The NOVA Wellness Center offers no cost comprehensive, trauma-informed, and gender affirming care, provided to students at the school.

Staff New Years Resolutions

In the spirit of the New Year, we asked our staff what resolutions they had for 2023. Below are their responses:

After reviewing the responses, we found that most answers were centered around physical health and personal growth.

Do you have a New Year’s Resolution for 2023? If not, we hope our staff gave you some ideas!

The Gift of Giving: Four Organizations To Support This Holiday Season

As we are in the midst of the holiday season, the spirit of giving is in the air.  At Schemata Workshop, we work with a wide variety of clients, including nonprofit organizations who have commitments to social change. While we support these year-round, it is in the season of giving that we encourage our audience to do the same. Below are a few organizations we partner with that you can support this holiday.


Open Doors for Multicultural Families (ODMF) provides culturally and linguistically relevant information, services, and programming to culturally and linguistically diverse families of persons with developmental and intellectual disabilities. These families are often immigrants, refugees, and/or people of color in South Seattle and Southern King County. ODMF’s staff are not only experts in disability services, special education, and other mainstream social services, but also collectively speak over 20 languages, which helps to alleviate the language barrier between the families served and the services they need.

In addition to providing resources, ODMF also hosts educational workshops for parents, self-advocates and youth experiencing developmental disabilities. These programs aim to educate family members on developmental disabilities and also empower those with disabilities to become leaders in their community.

You can support ODMF this holiday season by volunteering or donating funds toward their daily operations.

Sawhorse Revolution is a Seattle-based non-profit serving high-school students primarily from Central and South Seattle. Their mission is to foster confident, community-oriented youth through the power of carpentry and craft. They achieve this with their summer and after school programs that offer students hands-on opportunities to learn about architecture and community development through services projects.

To support Sawhorse Revolution, you can donate funds to provide students with tools and materials for their projects here.

 

 

 Africatown Community Land Trust (ACLT) advocates for Black community ownership of land in the Central District and supports the cultural and economic thriving of people who are part of the African diaspora in the Greater Seattle region. Their board is comprised of real estate professionals, business executives, entrepreneurs, and other professionals and long-time community members from the Central District.

This year, they launched the “From Imagination to Creation” fundraising campaign to support the William Gross Center for Cultural Innovation and Enterprise. Their goal is to raise $300,000  for the Makerspace and Visual Effects Film Studio at the WGC, which provides youth education in manufacturing and design.

Donating to this effort allows ACLT to hire full time instructors, provide technology for operation of the facility, and help launch the Manufacture and Visual Effect program. If you are interested in giving, click here.

Queer The Land (QTL) is a collaborative project grounded in the self-determination of queer, transgender, and Two-Spirit Black/ indigenous/ people of color (QT2BIPOC), and the vision of collectively owning land and labor. QTL’s goal is to not only to provide housing but also a safe space for the QT2BIPOC community. Their mission is to create a movement by building a space that can generate income and become a political hub for QTBIPOC and community organizing. They are fundraising to create a QT2BIPOC-owned and operated cooperative in one of Seattle’s historical communities of color that will include transitional housing, a co-working space, venue space, communal space, and a community garden.

To support this effort, you can donate here.

Project Update: St. Francis house is complete!

In early October, St. Francis House hosted their first event in their new building in Seattle.

A month later, a Schemata representative sat down with Laura Young, Executive director of St. Francis House, to chat about her time as executive director and how St. Francis is settling into its new space.

How did you get involved with St. Francis House?

I started in about 2018 with the expectation to just volunteer. At the time, they needed an assistant director. So instead of volunteering, I came on board as an employee and worked in that role for a couple years before our executive director at the time Kathy Collins decided to retire. I assumed her role upon that retirement in 2020.

Shortly after assuming your role, the world went into lock down due to the pandemic. How did you handle that transition for you and what ?

It was complicated because at the same time we were undergoing a redevelopment. I initially knew I wanted to be a part of St. Francis House because of their mission, but once they explained to me the potential of a redevelopment (which was my former career) I knew the position was perfect for me. So once the pandemic came, that kind of coincided with the demolition of our former building and trying to find an interim space to operate, which was complicated because we couldn't find one that fit both needs of operation- a warehouse, and then a place to serve clients. Ultimately, we wound up finding two separate buildings – one a warehouse that held donations, and another space given to us by Pioneer Human services that allowed us to serve clients at a very reduced capacity, but still remain open.

Wow, I’m glad to hear that, in spite of the everything you were able to continue operating- even at a reduced rate. Were there any other successes that you have had as an executive director in this organization?

Well, we embarked on our very first capital campaign for this building because we never did this project to make a huge, profit. But after leveraging our former home into a home for a hundred residents and then a new home for St. Francis House, what started as a modest profit then turned into a deficit after things changed with the pandemic. Construction and product costs soared, and delays became a common thing. Soon, we realized we needed to undergo a capital campaign to make up for that deficit, It started as a pretty modest goal of $300,000 and I’m happy to say we nearly doubled that goal. Which just really proved the community support we had out there.

That’s amazing! Goes to show how much support St. Francis has from the community. Now that you that St. Francis House is settling into its new space, what do you see in the future for the organization?

Well, with time, I see it evolving in that we will have, programmatically reached out to other partner organizations, so they can have a presence here on a regular basis to further our services. Because we can only do what our model does. But oftentimes, we're left yearning to have done more so with this office. We’ve purposefully programmed this space so that we can regularly bring in mental health counselors or housing specialists, addiction counselors, people that can help with medical insurance. So, we can broaden our scope. A lot of our old model successfully transferred to this space, in part due to the deep investment and time and due diligence that Grace and Sarah with Schemata Workshop took to make sure that they understood what they were planning for.

But there's nuances that come up every day that we have to deal with, you know? It's a much more complicated facility than we had before. So, there's always something .

What are some ways that people can get involved with St. Francis House? Are there particular areas that, St. Francis House needs support and who can they reach out to, to get connected?

I'm the primary point of contact for volunteers. And there are so many ways people can help  young and old people too. We always need more volunteers to help in hospitality sorting or help our clients shop in the rooms. I also encourage people who want to volunteer but can't be here physically to either make sandwiches, make snack packs, or even make small Ziploc bags full of powdered laundry detergent.

For Christmas, we're so thankful that this year we have the mezzanine space that will transform into a toy store. So, another way people can help at the holidays is by donating toys, money, or gift cards. Unless you want to help during our shopping days in the toy store, that's also really fun.

To learn more about St. Francis House, visit https://www.stfrancishouseseattle.org/

Who's New at Schemata?

Earlier this year, Schemata Workshop added Katie Hogan, Breanne Taylor, and Alec Gardner to the team. Keep reading (and visit our Staff page) to learn more about them!

Are you interested in working for Schemata Workshop? Check out our Careers page to see our open positions.

Katie Hogan

If you had a time machine that would work only once, what point in the future or in history would you visit?
I try to live in the present! Every day is a gift.  

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?

Can’t pick just one – either Paris or Costa Rica.

If your home was burning down, after family members and pets, what three things would you try to save?

Original artwork, photo albums, and jewelry.

If you could talk to any one person now living or dead, who would it be and why?

My father. He died when I was just 20, and I would dearly love to tell him about my life.

If you had to give up one of your senses (taste, smell, touch, sight, hearing) which would it be and why?

Taste – as much as I love to eat, I’d give up taste because the other senses are all so vital to living a satisfying life. 

If you were an animal, what would you be and why?

A dolphin, because they are really smart and playful, and it always looks like they are having a good time.

Do you have any pets? if not, what sort of pet would you like?

I don’t have any pets right now but have had dogs in the past. I hope to have another dog (preferably a Corgi) in the future, but it’s not feasible with my current living situation.

Name a gift you will never forget.

My graduation present (June 2021), which was air fare for a trip to Alaska

What is one of your favorite family traditions?

Opening Christmas stockings after all the presents.

What is your favorite thing to do in the summer?

Hang out with friends and family in my back yard, which is a peaceful urban oasis.

Alec Gardner

If you had a time machine that would work only once, what point in the future or in history would you visit?

I would travel to my childhood, and do it again.

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?

I would go to 便宜坊 in China, Beijing, Dongcheng, Xianyukou St, 鲜鱼口65-77号 邮政编码: 100051.I

If your home was burning down, after family members and pets, what three things would you try to save?

My camera (to record the tragic day), my computer hard drives, and a bottle of Auchentoshen (to be best prepared for the loss).

If you could talk to any one person now living or dead, who would it be and why?

My mom because I miss her.

If you had to give up one of your senses (taste, smell, touch, sight, hearing) which would it be and why?

I would give up smell, because I lost it for 6 months during COVID and it wasn’t so bad. I appreciated food in a different way, and I lost 20 lbs.

If you were an animal, what would you be and why?

Maybe an octopus because it must be nice in the sea with intelligence and friends and a home.

Do you have any pets? if not, what sort of pet would you like?

A cat, because my wife says its like having a weird roommate and they’re good for a more mobile lifestyle.

Name a gift you will never forget.

My first car.

What is one of your favorite family traditions?

The now retired week of camping at Banks Lake.

What is your favorite thing to do in the summer?

I would say road trips and exploring but today I want to drink beer and watch a baseball game with my dad.

Breanne Taylor

If you had a time machine that would work only once, what point in the future or in history would you visit?

1970’s! I am much younger than the rest of my family – and while growing up in the 90’s and 2000’s was fun, I wonder what it would have been like to a part of the family when they were new. I was born into their traditions, and it would have been nice to witness them alongside my brother and my parents. Also, I love disco.

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?

I do not know where my families come from outside of the US, but during the Vietnam War, my dad was stationed in Stuttgart, Germany. My dad then taught me German when I was little, so it feels the closest I have to a geographical lineage. Also, I have a silly hope that I have a long lost sister there (who would be in her 50’s) and we would somehow find each other if I were to visit.

If your home was burning down, after family members and pets, what three things would you try to save?

Photos, because they are memories. Mementos, because they are memories too. Gifts from loved ones, especially if they are handmade.

If you could talk to any one person now living or dead, who would it be and why?

My dad. Because I miss him and because I never got to talk to him as an adult. I want to show him all I have accomplished and hear all his opinions and stories I never got to know.

If you were an animal, what would you be and why?

Probably a domesticated cat or dog. Their lives seem perfect – friends, play, rest, free food!

Do you have any pets? if not, what sort of pet would you like?

Yes, two! A dog named Elle, after Eleven from Stranger Things, and a cat named Navi, after the fairy in the Legend of Zelda. They are both rescues so they do not have breeds, but they are cute and small!

Name a gift you will never forget.

I’m always touched when people notice the small things. For my birthday last year, my partner Jack got me (among other things) a pack of Haribo Berries, my favorite gummy candy. It really struck me because I had never eaten them around him, and probably had only casually mentioned them once or twice perusing a convenience store. I know it seems trivial, but it is the little things.

What is one of your favorite family traditions?

We play board games during holidays until very late. My family is very funny and we just laugh and laugh until we can’t anymore. One time, while playing Scrabble on Thanksgiving, my dad laughed so hard that he passed out and we had to go the ER.

What is your favorite thing to do in the summer?

Swim!