Frolic Community

We're #hiring a new Chief of Staff in Seattle, Washington. Apply today or share this post with your network.

We're #hiring a new Chief of Staff in Seattle, Washington. Apply today or share this post with your network.

How can we empower black homeowners to lead development in their communities? Frolic recently had the incredible opportunity to partner with Wa Na Wari during their annual Walk the Block arts festival and community event. This marked the evolution of our work together over the past year, and our shared sense of responsibility to listen to, learn from, and cherish those who have come before us, recognizing the importance of the community’s voice.  Together we organized a Black Homeowner Design Charrette at Walk the Block Institute, connecting local homeowners with resources to help them achieve their visions – all in a public forum designed to share knowledge and celebrate community history. We partnered directly with four inspiring Black families – Eula Scott Bynoe, Jacqueline Smith Armstrong, Anita and Vance Adams, and Teya and Nita Williams – who presented their homes as case studies. Each one showcased a unique vision for small-scale land development in high-value urban neighborhoods like Seattle's historic Central District. We were honored to be invited into each participant's home for weekly visits over several months and hear how each family's legacy has stood the test of time against displacement and gentrification in their neighborhoods. With their trust we were able to share our resources as a team to provide insights, various tools, skillsets, and processes that continue to help craft our model and position as an organization. Through conversations about land use, design, construction, policy, finance, estate planning, and implementation, we took a community-driven approach to exploring housing development. From this co-design process, we collaborated with a team of experts (see below) to guide and provide material for their development visions into actionable next steps. Our open charrette setting also invited community members to join in, observe, and participate in the day-long event, by providing everyone a chance to learn and contribute to a collective process of dreaming, learning, and building. Whether you were a community member, policy advocate, AEC professional, financier, or just curious, the charrette was a space to learn, be inspired, and explore new approaches to housing development. https://lnkd.in/gZwWt5zh Special thanks to all of our visionary homeowners, as well as: Inye Wokoma and Francesca Eluhu at Wa Na Wari, Leland Adams, Jorge Burke, Leah Martin at Allied8, Robert Humble at HYBRID ARCHITECTS LLC, Kelly Sommerfeld at Ten Penny Studio, Bradley Khouri at b9 architects, Sam Lai at Green Canopy NODE, Seattle Office of Housing, Seattle Office of Planning and Community Development, Caleb Jackson, Christopher Shaw, Cierra Higgins, Nicole Bascomb-Green, MBA, Peggy Allen Jackson, Shanece Dedeaux, Steven Schindler, Vivian Phillips, and all who joined us. #CommunityDevelopment #AffordableHousing #BlackHomeownership #LandUse #WalkTheBlockInstitute #UrbanPlanning #Seattle #CentralDistrict #CooperativeHousing

Thank you to the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco for featuring Frolic Community in their latest report "Homeownership Opportunities beyond Single Family."

Thank you to the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco for featuring Frolic Community in their latest report "Homeownership Opportunities beyond Single Family."

The term “Frolic” describes a tradition in which hundreds of families gather to raise a barn. Frolics are a demonstration of what is possible when a community comes together to build its future. Over the last handful of days the Frolic Team got the privilege to gather in Phoenix alongside hundreds of other volunteers with Seed the Vote and Living United for Change in Arizona and dive into many deep heartfelt conversations with people navigating whether to vote and how to hold this complex moment. This was a perfect reflection of a Frolic as we could only do so much as individuals in a few days but as a part of the larger network of canvassers we had thousands of conversations which brought many people to the polls. (Last presidential election Arizona's electoral votes were decided by only 10,000 votes!) I must also give an important shout out to our dear friend and partner Kara Murray-Badal (Terner Center for Housing Innovation) who we gloriously stumbled upon as one of the key organizers of the event. A beautiful sign that there are so many important ways for us to do the work we do to bring hope and security and joy and housing the broader community we are apart of.

We're thrilled to be featured in this new report on housing innovation! Collaboration with the Seattle Office of Housing was essential to making Corvidae Co-op a reality, and we're proud to share that story here. Many thanks to the authors of this report and partners Enterprise Community Partners, Wells Fargo Foundation, Ivory Innovations, and Terner Labs, for shining a light on our efforts to create more opportunities for affordable homeownership. Read the full report here: https://lnkd.in/gJJH4Rvp

I’m honored to be representing Frolic Community next week at the Living Future Institute's Affordable Housing Summit! I'll be sharing Frolic's work, including our recently completed project with Allied8, in a session on innovative housing models and pathway to homeownership, and learning more about the amazing work of fellow panelists Faith Cable Kumon (Project for Pride in Living (PPL)) and Dylan Lamar (Cultivate, Inc.). This virtual event takes place October 24 & 25, 2024 from 8AM–12PM PT. Sign up now and join us: https://bit.ly/4g4RTxx #AffordableHousingSummit #HousingForAll #AffordableHousing #RegenerativeDesign #SustainableBuilding

We're thrilled to be featured in this recent Economic Architecture post. They tell our story with care and a deep understanding of the interplay between finance and design in our work. Encourage you to check out their Valuing Homes in Black Communities challenge this fall with The Brookings Institution, linked below.

How can the smallest design details of individual projects start to shift the larger social and financial ecosystems in which they exist? Our co-founder Joshua Morrison discusses this and more with Hélène Lesterlin in a recent episode of Radio Kingston's The Good Work Hour radio show. Thanks Hélène for shining a light on our work and for inspiring us with all you do at the Good Work Institute. https://lnkd.in/dmTeuwRa