Freedom West Homes

I helped one of the oldest cooperatives in San Francisco, home to Black and immigrant families, get closer to realizing their dream of a massive residential, cultural, and community expansion.

Skills used: community design, stakeholder engagement, workshop development and facilitation, public speaking

Press: SF Chronicle

All images courtesy of Freedom West Homes

Problem

One of the oldest cooperatives in San Francisco, home to Black and immigrant families, wanted to undergo a massive expansion—from about 300 units to more than 2000 units. They also wanted a performing arts center, planned development with community-serving retail, commercial spaces, green spaces, and a STEM center. They needed support facilitating workshops with their Board of Directors, community engagement strategies, and a larger community meeting.

Outcome

  • Broad community and government support for development plans

  • Widespread discussion and exploration of true community wealth-building

Approach

  • Facilitated an interactive meeting with the Board of Directors to surface their history and values, and how to integrate those into their future vision and plans

  • Conducted and presented research on demographic and social shifts in the neighborhood, connecting it to Board members’ lived experiences

  • Helped organize and facilitate stakeholder meeting with the larger community, which included participation from Danny Glover

  • Advised on engagement strategies to collect input from community members

  • Co-authored a case study on the impact of collective wealth-building 

Partners

Freedom West Homes
McFarlane Partners
Institute for the Future

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